WARNING: This blog may include spoilers for the Twilight series.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my neighbor, a 10 year-old boy at PS 321 in Brooklyn, and found out that he had just started reading Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Many of his friends and classmates were doing the same. This surprised me. I knew Twilight had engaged middle- and high-school readers, but I hadn’t realized it had reached a far as fifth-grade boys. And I was more than a little disturbed by this.

I’ve tried to find a non-biased summary of Twilight online, but it doesn’t seem to exist. So the following is my (very biased), but completely accurate, summary: The Twilight series is the story of Bella, a young girl who, in the first two books, falls in love with a vampire (Edward) and a werewolf (Jacob). She then spends the next two books pining over them, threatening to kill herself when one of them leaves her, distancing herself from her friends (so it’s not too hard to say goodbye when she finally becomes a vampire herself to join Edward), jumping off cliffs (to “hear Edward’s voice” getting mad at her), and purposely endangering herself so she will be rescued by these supernatural non-men.

Despite all its modern trappings, the girls of Twilight are still girly girls, and the boys are traditional manly men. More specifically: The boys are muscular and unwaveringly brave, while the girls bake cookies, make supper for the men and hold all-female slumber parties. It gets worse for feminists: Bella is regularly threatened with violence in the first three books, and in every instance she is rescued by Edward or Jacob. In the third book she describes herself as ‘helpless and delicious.”

Is that how we want young girls defining themselves? This is 2009: What about capable and strong? The Twilight books indicate that being “helpless and delicious” are attractive and desirable qualities. And are these hunky netherworld types the role models for young boys to follow? The young men in Twilight are all head over heels for Bella Swan.

Beth Handman, PS 321’s assistant principal, says, “It is a perennial problem in elementary schools that children who are sophisticated readers end up with books laden with concepts that are beyond their emotional development. Young children can be very vulnerable to messages in literature. It would be best if children could wait until they were older to read these kinds of books.”

If that means they’re reading books like Twilight, parents and teachers should be familiar with the content and engage them in conversations on the messages and morals. Better yet, read it yourself — and decide whether it’s right for your child.

Editor’s Note:  Due to a technical error, we published an incomplete citation and link in the post above.  Insideschools regrets any confusion, and thanks the sharp-eyed reader who brought the matter to our attention. 

In the Daily News, Merideth Kolodner profiles a family whose talented, accomplished son was not matched with any high schools on the first admissions round, echoing comments we’re hearing from readers and parents citywide. On TV, Cindy Hsu at CBS Channel 2 covered the story, and Brian Lehrer invited Insideschools director Pamela Wheaton on the radio to discuss the high school match process.

The supplementary round high school admissions fair is on March 31. Insideschools has posted a list of schools with open seats, as well as tips on individual schools. And the pressure’s on: Unlike the first round, which spanned months, decisions must be made quickly. The deadline to submit paperwork to guidance counselors is Friday, April 3.

Before and after school tomorrow, parents and education advocates will rally outside PS 125 in Harlem to protest the Department of Education’s exclusion of the community (and the Community Education Council) from local zoning decisions, which CECs are legally bound to review and approve. PS 125 currently enrolls student in grades 3 through 6, receiving students from PS 36, which covers pre-K through grade 2. The DOE has decided that PS 36 will expand to include older students, curtailing the stream of students that has long fed PS 125, and that PS 125 will lose its sixth grade.

That block of West 125th street is one of the most school-dense zones in town: PS 125 shares its building with the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering, which will eventually span grades 6 through 12 — and its next door neighbor is the well-regarded KIPP Star College Prep Charter School.

(See the bottom of the post for an afternoon update from the DOE)

Upper East Side families zoned for the long-shuttered elementary school PS 151 do not have a zoned school for their children and have instead been permitted to apply for seats at other Upper East Side elementary schools. This year, the process for these families has changed; the Department of Education plans to open a new school for the 151 zone in September.

Where the school will open, however, remains uncertain, say representatives of the DOE and local community leaders. Sites under consideration include an area parochial school, Our Lady of Good Counsel, and the basement classrooms at Wagner, a selective middle school of more than 1,300 students. Andrew Jacob of the DOE says the plan is that a “new school will incubate at a leased site,” but “if we’re unable to lease a site, the kindergarten classes will be located at Wagner in September.”

The area under discussion for the new kindergarten at Wagner includes three basement classrooms and one unisex bathroom (with two stalls) on the basement floor. The rooms are adjacent to the middle school’s music and band room, and their ceiling-height windows are level with the schoolyard. Students at the new kindergarten and the middle school would likely share a single entrance; it’s not known how other spaces, such as the lunchroom, schoolyard, and gym, might be shared.

(more…)

It’s admissions season at the Department of Education — another week, another deadline.

This week, parents of 2009 pre-Kindergarten students must submit applications for the coming year; links here to the online application and school directory. You can also pick up a paper copy of the application at your local elementary schools.

Take a look at the directory for particulars on enrollment priority — siblings first, followed by children who live in the school’s zone. If you don’t know your zone, call 311, or use the DOE’s map finder. Only children born in 2005 may apply for pre-K.

The pre-K and kindergarten process have gone through some dramatic changes in recent years: Families should understand that enrollment in a pre-K does not guarantee enrollment in the same school’s kindergarten. There is no “automatic articulation” — DOE-speak for moving up from one class to the next — and all students must apply again for kindergarten, even if the family would like their child to continue at the same school.

The DOE offers half- and full-day programs in all five boroughs. If you’re still school-shopping, check here for tips – but make your choices quickly, as the deadline is fast approaching. According to the DOE, families will get placement news the week of May 18.

More than half of the readers who responded to our poll said that parents who didn’t speak English were involved in their child’s school. But the biggest segment, 28 percent, said that non-native speakers weren’t part of the school community, and nearly one in five readers said they weren’t much aware of non-English speakers in their school — testament to the invisibility many immigrant parents report. But one parent put the question in perspective; at her child’s school, she said, parents weren’t made to feel welcome, no matter what language they spoke.

This week, we have questions about the high-school admission process. Add your comments here, or start a new string here: It’s a question that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of young New Yorkers, including yours.

More than 80,000 8th and 9th graders have opened thin envelopes with news about where they had been accepted to high school. There was good news for 86 percent of the applicants - they matched with one of their top five choices from a list of 12. Another five percent were accepted at schools they ranked 6th or below on the high school application. That still left 7,455 students without a match and scrambling to figure out what to do next. Students who were not accepted anywhere must fill out a new application, choosing up to 12 schools from a list of schools that still have seats to fill. Those students are invited to attend a fair from 6-9 p.m. on March 31 at Martin Luther King Jr Educational Complex in Manhattan, where they can meet with school admissions counselors and school representatives.

Applications are due back to guidance counselors by Thursday, April 3; students should be notified where they have been accepted by April 30.

(more…)

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer weighs in on the mayoral control debate, with a report that urges strengthening Community Education Councils (CECs) and increasing their independence, by transferring their training and supervision from the Department of Education’s Office of Family Engagement to the offices of the city’s five borough presidents. Stringer says his proposal reflects the “desire to give parents more of a voice in the education decisions that affect their children” — and that the move could mean savings of up to $5 million, if the work now assigned to OFEA were undertaken by borough president office staff.

From Brooklyn, City Council member (and public school parent) Bill de Blasio charges $57.3 million in overspending by the DOE, on “unnecessary tests, courier services, and an expanded press operation, with a seven-person ‘Truth Squad’” — press monitors who follow DOE coverage. (Gotham Schools has details here, including $10,000 a-school-day fees for courier services.) De Blasio illustrates his charges with a nifty chart, comparing moneys spent with an ‘average’ teacher’s salary of $55,000 a year. While it’s a far stretch to think that DOE would abandon its data management system ARIS or dramatically scale back accountability, their cost together would support almost 700 teachers, a calculus many parents might prefer.

Chancellor Klein threatens layoffs for up to 2000 teachers; de Blasio identifies expenditures that could fund more than 1000 teaching positions. Perhaps these savings are in his sights as a contender for the post of Public Advocate — or in Stringer’s field of vision as he contemplates a 2010 Senate run. It’s spring; high season for budding campaigns — and budget fights.

The 7,455 eighth grade students who did not get matched with a high school in the first round are scrambling to research their options and find a good fit. The Department of Education has given middle school counselors a list of schools with available space. Some schools have space for incoming 9th graders, others have 10th-grade spots — and some have both (there’s a key to decode the programs, but no way to discern the numbers of seats still open).

Watch Insideschools today for the 2009 version of this article, with our recommendations for high schools parents and eighth graders might look at again. As always, we welcome your questions, comments and concerns, and we will do our best to answer quickly.

My children came home from their middle school yesterday looking solemn and ashen-faced, and I knew immediately that something was up. They reported seeing hallways filled with sobbing 8th-graders who learned they did not get into their first, second or even third choice of high school. At least five, they said, were hysterical — they hadn’t been matched with any school at all. My 8th-grader, who got good news in February, felt terrible for some of his friends and classmates. My 6th-grader felt tremendous fear about what might happen to him. Some of the shut-out students had fine grades and test scores, so the kids now know that working hard in school doesn’t guarantee a successful high school match.

Earlier in the day, a press release from the Department of Education boasted that 86 percent (74,064) of the 86,169 students who applied for admission to a New York City public high school in 2009 were matched to one of their top five choices. Over half of the applicants – 51 percent (44,012) – received their first choice school, and 76 percent (65,780) got one of their top three schools.

Buried in the churn of seemingly good news was this incredible fact: some 7,455 students received no match at all. I’ve been writing about the high school selection process since September, and I can say there have been plenty of opportunities — exams, interviews, information fairs, notices about new high schools. Guidance counselors have been informative and helpful. I was both astonished and pleased at the many different types of high schools that exist. But through it all, the lurking fear remained — what happens if you don’t get a match?

I don’t think it’s fair for the DOE to claim success when close to 7,500 children in New York City didn’t get seats. I think that number is shamefully high. And I think there is something seriously wrong with this system. The high school admissions process is an enormously complicated and frightening ordeal that asks a lot of kids and parents. While it is true that many students had multiple fine choices, it is not okay to leave young adolescents out in the cold, sobbing in the hallways, feeling the sharp sting of rejection that in many cases was no fault of theirs.

InsideSchools wants to hear your story — as well your suggestions for a solution.

Maybe Brooks is just going through a particularly promising phase, or maybe I’m seeing him through my Mom’s rose-colored glasses, or maybe, just maybe, my little boy with autism is no longer so definitively a little boy with autism. Hmm.

When my Mom, who’s visiting from Canada, wakes up in the morning, Brooks’s face lights up: “Look, Mommy — Baba’s up! Hi, Baba!” (Baba: Grandma.) No longer any need to prompt him for social greetings, at least not when my Mom’s around. He doesn’t whisper his good morning shyly, or spit it out robotically; his cadences are natural and sound like music to me.

Even though Baba has a ton of stamina, Brooks is able to exhaust her with the kind of play that was out of his reach during her previous visit, last March. Directing her to read aloud to his stuffed animal friends and then subjecting her to their questions: “What was your favorite part, Bear?” and then following up with “Bear, you need to talk louder — we couldn’t hear you.” Inviting her to take a pretend bus ride with him to the North Pole. Getting her to help him feed the pretend baby sweet potatoes. All spontaneous. All appropriate. All ratcheted up a notch or two higher than what we’re used to.

At Brooks’s most recent parent-teacher conference, my husband and I learn that Brooks is on track to achieve the goals his Intensive K team defined back in September. We also learn that his cognitive skills are at or above age level. Really? We are unprepared for this. We know how to discuss why he is scoring below his age level; we know how to talk about how the strategies in place are not getting the job done so we need to come up with new ones, but frankly, we’re a little lost in this meeting. There’s no “bad” part at the end. We’ve clenched our stomach muscles to absorb the blow, but there is no blow. Do we exhale now?

Yes, for the moment, we exhale. Without forgetting that Brooks still has a long way to go. Without forgetting that he is still very awkward when it comes to greetings that involve hugs and kisses, or that he has never once favored playing with a child when an adult is available. Without forgetting that bathroom independence is tough because buttons and zippers are hard and he often gets distracted by the running water, and he still doesn’t get the social part of why he has to pull up his pants before he leaves the bathroom. Without forgetting for a heartbeat that his imaginative play we celebrate would look awfully juvenile for a typically developing 6-year-old.

Without forgetting all those things (because we don’t have that luxury, because we have to stay on-task), we can also take a moment to celebrate how far Brooks has come, and how hard he’s worked, and how lucky we are.

Things are looking up — the glass is three-quarters full. Cheers!

This afternoon, the city’s 86,169 8th graders finally got news about their high-school placements for September. According to the Department of Education, just over half got good news from their first-choice school, three-fourths got one of their top three picks, and 86 percent got one of their top five. (Students who received offers from the eight specialized exam high schools and LaGuardia got their news in February.)Despite a process that permitted student to rank up to 12 general-education schools, 7,455 students came home empty-handed, without having matched to a school on their list. These students will participate in a supplementary round, which launches with a school fair on March 31 from 6 pm - 9 pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus in Manhattan.While the first round of the high-school process spans months, the decision-making window in the supplementary round is short: Applications must be returned to 8th grade guidance counselors on or before April 3.

The expansion of charter schools into zoned school buildings took a legal turn yesterday as the United Federation of Teachers and the New York Civil Liberties Union jointly filed suit to block the DOE from emptying school zones of their schools without public process or approval from Community District Education Councils.

DOE has long been pushing the limits of parent tolerance of its authoritarian use of power. When they closed PS241 and proposed only one school, a charter, to take over its building, we realized that for the first time in our district a zone would be empty of any zoned school. This seemed like a zoning change, but according to the law that outlines mayoral control, only CECs have the authority to approve zoning changes. To members of CEC3, DOE’s unilateral action seemed illegal. But we are not lawyers, so we reached out to lawyers we knew, and organizations with lawyers on staff, and asked how it looked to them.

The responses came one after another: the DOE’s action did seem illegal. We also discovered that some citywide organizations were hearing the same story from CECs in other districts. Parents in those districts had the same experience of zones being emptied of their neighborhood schools without CEC approval, and had come to the same conclusion as we had: a legal response seemed warranted. It took citywide organizations with legal resources, like the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and New York Civil Liberties Union, to organize the legal response. In pushing the envelope, DOE was testing the limits of its authority until someone came along willing to provide a firm response.

Fortunately, the sunset of the mayoral control laws this June provides a good opportunity to ask the hard questions, and demand the discipline that the DOE so clearly needs. I am a named plaintiff in the lawsuit because the CECs were the ones legally mandated to approve zoning changes. In the announcement, I am quoted as saying ““This is about the rule of law and community participation. The law requires local involvement in zoning changes through the approval of Community Education Councils. By closing these schools, the DOE is not only breaking the law, it is subverting the democratic process.”

If DOE’s plans have a sound basis, they should be able to withstand the “withering scrutiny” of honest public hearings and the CEC approval process — which is grounded in the very same “power to the parents” DOE says it is encouraging, in the upcoming CEC elections.

Parents have been asking how the kindergarten placement process works; we asked the DOE for details — and why they advised families to “wait until September” for possible placements at local schools.

Zoned schools fill their seats drawing from the applications they receive before the March 6 deadline, says Andy Jacob of the Department of Education. (This is a change from years past, when schools accepted students on a first-come, first-served basis, or based on pre-K enrollment.) If more children apply than the school has seats, a lottery should be held; some students will receive placement offers, and others will be wait-listed. There is no ‘rank’ or priority of any kind on wait lists, Jacob says. As seats open over the spring and summer, as families move, opt for other schools or opt out of public schools — families are notified. “We simply don’t have a really solid grasp on seats that are available until September,” Jacob said, which is why he advises watchful waiting. (The DOE also doesn’t know the total number of kindergarten applications citywide. It’s up to individual schools to count the applications they receive.)

All zoned schools reserve some seats for the inevitable September arrivals. The number of seats they save depends on past years’ enrollment and prior experience with latecomers. But not every family who moves into a zone can get a seat at their zoned school of choice. Jacob says, “we guarantee a kindergarten seat, but we don’t guarantee a seat at your top school.”

Some families have received offers from two schools while others have received no offers. Because each school administers its own admissions process, it’s possible for a single child to receive more than one offer. Families can ask to be placed on their zoned school’s wait list even if they’ve been offered a seat at another school. According to Jacob, they do not forfeit the wait-list spot if they accept placement at another school.

In a zoned school that has more applications than available seats, capping the number of kindergarten classes the school will have is a last resort, says Jacob, and isn’t undertaken casually. The DOE will first ask a zoned school if another class can be opened, or if classes are already filled to the UFT contractual maximum. “There are lots of steps before capping,” says Jacob, and a school can’t elect to cap its classes independently. “The school has to accept zoned students unless a capping plan is worked out by the DOE,” says Jacob. Timing-wise, decisions are made right up to the start of the new school year, which is why the waiting game takes so long. Families whose children applied to but aren’t placed at their zoned school are “offered different options nearby,” says Jacob. Accepting a seat doesn’t mean giving up access; “they have the right to return,” he says, if and when seats open up at their zoned school.

“This is nothing new,” Jacob said. “It’s something we’re used to dealing with every year.” What’s “routine” to the DOE is vitally new to plenty of local families who report frustration and disappointment with the kindergarten admissions process. We’ll continue to ask questions, and we look forward to bringing you answers.

Update: Andy Jacob asked that we clarify two points above: First, regarding wait lists at zoned schools, enrollment priority goes in the order established by DOE on the initial application — siblings of current students who live in the zone (who are rarely, if ever, wait-listed), students who live in the zone , siblings who live outside of the zone, and, finally, out-of-zone kids. Within those subgroups, applications are not ranked in any particular order. That means that all zoned kids on the wait list are in the same pool, and that, as seats open, applications are randomly selected from that pool (once siblings have been accommodated). So you can’t be first, or last, on the wait list, but rather you are part of a group of wait-listed students.

Second, Jacob would like to emphasize that DOE will place all students in kindergarten classes — although there’s no guarantee of a placement at every family’s zoned school. He says that in some cases, families may be offered more than one alternative to their zoned school, in an effort to find a good fit between the child, the family, and the school.

Still looking for an elementary or middle school for your child? You might want to consider one of the new schools opening in September. In addition to the new high schools and charter schools opening this fall, 26 schools with elementary and middle school grades will also open their doors. Many of these schools will replace schools that the Department of Education has slated to close over the next few years, but others will open to alleviate overcrowding and offer families more school choice.

Bronx

A flood of new schools will open to take the place of schools that are in the process of phasing out. In District 8, the Mott Hall Community School and the Soundview Academy will join several middle schools that have replaced IS 192 and IS 174, which will close in June.

In District 9, the Family School and the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders will take over the PS 90 school zone. Families within the zone will also have the option of enrolling their child in the Grant Avenue Elementary School. Grant Avenue and the Science and Technology Academy, a new middle school, will both open at IS 166, which is slated to close by 2011.

In District 12, the Urban Scholars Community School will replace CS 198, while in Districts 10, IS 399 will be replaced by two new middle schools: the Creston Academy and the East Fordham Academy for the Arts. District 11 will welcome three schools to offer students alternatives to their zoned middle school: Baychester Academy, Pelham Academy, and CASA Middle School, an extension of the established CASA elementary school.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn will open a mix of ‘replacement’ schools and brand-new schools, including one of the new citywide gifted and talented schools. Three of Brooklyn’s new schools will open in newly-constructed buildings: the Brooklyn School of Inquiry and the Academy of Talented Scholars will share one building, while the Science and Medicine Middle School will share its building with a new transfer school. In District 15, the Red Hook Neighborhood School will replace the early grades of PS 27, a K-12 school that is phasing out, and in District 19, East New York Elementary and East New York Middle School will replace PS 72.

Manhattan

Downtown Manhattan parents in District 2 will gain two new highly-anticipated elementary schools, the Battery Park City School and the Spruce Street School, as well as Quest to Learn, an innovative, technology-based 6-12 school. Uptown parents will gain three new middle schools: West Prep Academy in District 3, Global Technology Prep in District 4, and New Tech in District 5.

Queens

The new schools will be concentrated on the Rockaway Peninsula. The Waterside Children’s Studio School, an arts-based elementary school, and the Waterside School for Leadership, a middle school, will replace PS 225, which will begin to phase out in June. Village Academy will open at MS 53 to give students a second zoned option.

Staten Island

Staten Island will get its first K-8 school when The Staten Island School for Civic Leadership opens in the Graniteville neighborhood.

We’ll keep posting information about the new schools as we learn it. Stay tuned to the InsideScoop.

Charging that the Department of Education has broken state law by announcing school closures without community consultation, the New York Civil Liberties Union announced today a lawsuit against the Department of Education in New York State Supreme Court, filed by New York City public school parents and Community Education Council representatives Olaiya Deen, David Grinage and Jennifer Freeman, who regular readers will recognize as an Insideschools’ columnist.

Joining the suit are UFT/AFT president Randi Weingarten and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

“The DOE should not pit parents against parents and students against students,” Weingarten said. Plaintiffs say that students and families are disenfranchised when the DOE elects to close struggling schools, like PS 150 in Brooklyn and PS 194 and PS 241 in Harlem, without consultation — and without guaranteeing families locally zoned schools or access to the charters slated to replace 194 and 241.

“The DOE is doing what it wants and telling us after the fact. That’s not choice,” said Sarita Mendez, a PS 150 parent with two daughters at the school.

“The law requires community approval,” said Weingarten, via a NYCLU press release. “The DOE is showing total disregard for the public’s concerns and the law.”

Q: What’s the deal with ‘Score Choice’? Can I really not submit some of my SAT scores? What about colleges that say they will not “honor” this policy?A: If you are totally confused about this “new” policy, join the club. High school juniors in the middle of test-taking season report that they are puzzled by the seeming contradictions of Score Choice. Is Score Choice good for students or not?The answer is: good, sort of. Read on.College Board — the company that brings you the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and other standardized national exams — states: “Designed to reduce student stress and improve the test-day experience, Score Choice is a new score-reporting feature that gives students the option to choose the SAT scores by test date and SAT subject tests by individual test that they send to colleges, in accordance with each individual’s score-use practice.”Score Choice is an “option,” and a student must select this option, otherwise the scores will be listed on their score-reporting form. This is explained in the small print on collegeboard.com and in their printed literature. When students register online to take the tests, they will see this explanation — but it is easily overlooked. Students who take the SAT multiple times must mark the Score Choice option every time. If a students does not mark the Score Choice option, “the College Board will send all of your scores to the recipient institutions.” (more…)

 Have a question for Jane?  Search archives | Contact the College Counselor

Dear Judy,

What is the use of taking an Advanced Regents diploma? Do colleges even know what a Regents exam is? Wouldn’t it be just as well to take the five basic Regents exams and not bother with more? Or not take them at all?

– High school parent

Dear High School Parent:

For a long time, passing Regents exams was not the only way to get a New York State diploma. For many students, demonstrating competency in major subjects meant passing an easier Regents Competency test (known as the RCT). Then politicians began questioning the true value of a New York State high school diploma, and imposed Regents exams on all students to raise the standards. The New York State Education Department also offered an advanced Regents diploma to those students who followed a more rigorous curriculum. Take a look at Insideschools’ basics on diploma requirements for the specifics.

It’s true that Regents exams are unique to New York State, but in response to the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) many states have now established exit exams to set standards for their diplomas. In that sense, New York has a leg up with college admissions officers, who have encountered Regents for a long time. Importantly, even if the colleges do not look at the Regents scores at all, and even if you never take the Regents exams themselves, the course load you take to qualify for an Advanced Regents Diploma includes exactly what college admissions offices look for: challenges and effort beyond the basic standard. Just read what City University says on its website to all its applicants: (more…)

 Have a school question for Judy?  Search archives | Contact Judy

Elissa Gootman writes today about families whose kids didn’t get kindergarten seats in their local schools, a block and a half from home. We’re also hearing from parents whose children haven’t been offered seats in nearby schools — and, in District 28 in Queens, of students offered kindergarten seats at two elementary schools (which is a byproduct of the new system, since parents are able to apply to any number of schools and each school handles its own admissions offers).

DOE spokesman Andy Jacob says that families should wait until September — a comment that seems a little cavalier on the surface, as families who’ve been in the kindergarten search mode for many months will take little comfort in waiting another two seasons. But, Jacob adds, “the bottom line is schools have to accommodate all of their zoned students, unless they work out a capping plan with us, and that happens in September.” So far, Gootman reports, 34 schools outside Manhattan have capped their kindergarten enrollment. It’s not known how many more will say “enough” — or if the capping trend will extend to Manhattan, where schools have never, according to Jacob, previously capped their kindergarten registers.

The landscape is additionally complicated by zoning questions — some areas that once had zoned elementaries no longer do, other neigh borhoods have seen a new school open without rezoning the surrounding blocks. The basic question — whether the DOE’s standardized kindergarten enrollment process makes sense — remains open. Let’s hope that city families won’t have to wait until September for that answer, too.

The deadline for kindergarten registration has been extended by the DOE to April 20, to accomodate the school vacation in mid-April.

Thanks to our commenters for the calendar check, and watch the blog for more kindergarten news in the coming days.

E.D. Hirsch, Core Knowledge founder and longtime education advocate, asks good questions today in the Times about testing, even as he endorses ‘teaching to the test,’ provided the test is a good one.

Meanwhile, families are still waiting for results of an urban test without any bubble-in, multi-choice format: Parents of kindergarteners have written in to say they’re still waiting for results from lotteries, local elementary schools, charters — and gifted & talented programs and schools, whose calendar doesn’t square up with other kindergarten registration dates.

And a point of information for parents worried that the school vacation in April means they won’t be able to register their child for kindergarten: You’re right to be concerned. Even though the DOE website says April 13th is the last day to register, the last day of school before vacation is April 8th. (The discrepancy was pointed out to DOE this afternoon; a response is forthcoming — watch the blog.)

In the latest weekly poll, we asked whether you thought there was too much focus on test preparation at your school. The majority of you said yes, with 33 percent reporting “way too much” test prep and 20 percent responding that while there may be too much test preparation, the system, not the school, is to blame. Another 20 percent of respondents wished their school provided more coaching and feel the students were unprepared for the high stakes exams.

Just 26 percent of the respondents felt that their school hit the right balance, with strong enough academics to negate the need for much test prep.

This week, we wonder whether immigrant parents who don’t speak English are included in your school community. A report just released by Advocates for Children, our parent organization, suggests that many non-English speaking parents don’t feel welcome in the city’s public schools. What have you observed in your school community?

The DOE’s experiment in parent outreach, powertotheparents, was designed to recruit nominees for upcoming “straw poll” CEC elections. The deadline for applications is midnight, tonight.

Turns out that responses in some parts of the city haven’t been as robust as expected. Parents, if you want a voice, this is a platform to speak out and lead. More information is here, with heartfelt thanks to all who throw their hats into the virtual ring.

According to the DOE, kindergarten letters were scheduled to go out to families from individual schools in mid-March. In fact, registration’s already underway: It began on Monday, March 16 and continues through April 13, which is the last day of the April vacation week. From what we’ve heard, some families have heard kindergarten news, while others have not, with worry buzzing from the corners of the city where parents haven’t yet received the official word.

There are concerns as well about registering for kindergarten while waiting for news on elementary gifted-and-talented program eligibility, because the calendars are out of synch. Kindergarten registration closes mid-April, just when G&T testing results and applications are scheduled to be mailed to parents. Even though G&T and mainstream kindergarten are entirely separate processes, parents understandably want to know where their child might attend school — do they ‘game’ the system by keeping a seat at a ’safe’ kindergarten in their back pocket while waiting for G&T news?

Schools were requested to mail kindergarten letters home this week, says DOE’s Andy Jacob. Some have, but he says that some may wait until next week, for reasons entirely unclear to Insideschools.

We’d love to hear from parents who’ve heard and those who are still waiting. Add your comments to the string below, and we’ll work to get your questions answered.

Citywide gifted and talented programs will open for the first time in Brooklyn and Queens this September, according to an announcement this afternoon by the Department of Education. Until today, “citywide” meant Manhattan — now, it seems the DOE has expanded the definition to three boroughs.

Two programs will open in Brooklyn: The Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a new G&T school in a brand-new building in Bay Ridge, and the Technology, Inquiry, Enrichment, and Research (TIER) Program, which will be part of PS 20 in Clinton Hill. PS 20 also houses a middle school, the Urban Assembly School for Arts and Letters.

The third new program, the Science, Technology, Enrichment, and Math (STEM) Academy, will be part of PS 85 in Astoria.

The Brooklyn School of Inquiry is designed to span kindergarten through eighth grade, and will open with kindergarten and first-grade students in the fall. The other two schools will also enroll kindergarteners and first-graders, and are planned to grow to fifth grade.

It’s not yet known how many students will be served at each school or how the new schools will share space with the already-established schools in shared buildings. (Watch the blog for updates.)

In order to be eligible for any of the six citywide programs, students must score at or above the 97th percentile on the OLSAT assessment.   The scores for students who have applied for September 2009 will be available in April. The three existing citywide schools in Manhattan are NEST+M, the Anderson School, and TAG.

UPDATE: According to Andy Jacob, a DOE press representative, the STEM program at PS 85 in Queens and the Brooklyn School of Inquiry will each be able to accommodate two kindergarten and two first grade classes. The TIER program at PS 20 in Brooklyn will only have space for one kindergarten and one first grade class. The three new programs will provide 200-250 new citywide gifted and talented seats.

The locations for the three new programs were chosen according to available space and access to public transportation, according to Jacob. The DOE anticipates opening three new programs in 2010, one in the Bronx, one in Staten Island, and one in eastern Queens.

State education committee members have traversed New York City in mayoral control hearings since late January. The Manhattan and Bronx hearings were long exercises in political theater and public outrage, with substantial issues raised, like the stifling of parent and community voices in Department of  Education  decision-making and the challenges of English language learners. This Friday in Brooklyn, the committee meets again, for its final hearing.

It’s not yet known who the DOE will send to address the committee, but it’s a fair bet the exchange will be lively and crowded: The City Tech auditorium that’s booked for the hearing seats 900.

Update: According to Assembly committee chair Cathleen Nolan’s office, the hearing will likely focus on academic achievement, graduation rates, and a wrap- up of the previous hearings. The formal agenda and list of speakers won’t be set until late afternoon today. (Watch the blog for follow-up.)

 Update:  Thanks to Assembly member and committee chair Cathleen Nolan for checking in – and reminding us that critical special education issues were covered in depth in the Staten Island mayoral control hearing. 

DOE speakers at the Friday hearing will include Eric Nadelstern, Chief Schools Officer and head of School Support Organization, and Deputy Chancellor Marcia Lyles; in addition to the agenda items mentioned above, the hearing will address contracts and related questions.

Over February break I was down in New Orleans with a group called the New York to New Orleans Coalition. As a student activist and a true believer in the strength of youth, it was the most inspiring experience of my life.

A little background on the organization: after Hurricane Katrina, Beacon High School brought group of students to New Orleans to work on reconstruction. After a year or so, Beacon stopped organizing these trips, but a few kids knew there was still work to do. So they started their own non-profit and began taking kids down themselves on every school vacation and every week of the summer. More than 100 students applied to go on their trip next month. Half had to be turned away because they could not be accommodated.

NY2NO is a completely student-led organization, started by kids who are now seniors at Beacon. Their vision is “to create a network of young people who are interested in organizing and mobilizing across New York City. NY2NO works in solidarity with those most affected by the social, racial, and economic inequalities in both New York and New Orleans. Through this, the youth breaks down barriers and works together to combat racism and classism and move towards an egalitarian society.” Despite the idealistic connotation of the word “egalitarian,” the organizers of NY2NO are practical, forward-thinking, active, thoughtful, and above all passionate.

NY2NO’s work in New Orleans is unique in a couple of ways. They go to rebuild, and to be part of a larger movement against racism. The week begins with a levee tour, where I learned that the levees of the Lower Ninth Ward are like ant hills compared to those of the French Quarter. The rest of the week is spent doing work in the Lower Ninth Ward, which still bears wounds from the storm. Mornings are spent on physical work, like gutting houses (yes, three years later, houses still need gutting) and working on community gardens (there is one supermarket, which is more of a deli, in the whole Lower Ninth). Afternoons are spent going door-to-door asking people about what they need, what their community needs, and just generally talking to the residents. Many people find themselves in two-hour conversations that end in tears on both sides.

Forget New Orleans’ stereotyped reputation: NY2NO trips are not about a bunch of teenagers hitting up the music and clubs on Bourbon St. My group spent every night talking about the best ways to combat racism, the idea of “solidarity not charity,” the emotions that were coming up from the day’s work, and the dynamics of our group as a reflection of society. We talked about how NY2NO could be more effective as an organization, how the environmental and education problems of New Orleans were present in New York City, and a million more things. Our trip quote was “If you have come to help me then you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together.” We kept this idea at the heart of all the work we did and conversations we had. After the occasional tears and frustration, I always felt a renewed faith in my generation, as did everyone else I talked to.

The trip brings out the best in everyone: We built real friendships, relationships that challenged our intellects and made us consider how de facto segregation is enforced in our society. A month later, I’m still getting a new Facebook message every few minutes from someone on the trip. NY2NO was a life-changing and unforgettable experience. If any readers are in high school or have children in high school, I give this trip my highest recommendation.

Most 6th-graders aren’t yet thinking about high school, but students who aspire to attend the city’s most selective high schools, should start planning now. The Specialized High School Institute, a free 16-month, tutoring and test-prep program geared to help kids prepare for the specialized high school exam, is accepting applications for its 2009-2010 program. Eligible students should have received an application from their school guidance counselor. The application due date is Monday, March 23.

To be eligible for the program, which is sponsored by the city Department of Education, students must be in the 6th grade, qualify for free lunch under the Federal Title 1 program, have scored a level 3 or 4 on the 5th grade state ELA and math tests, and have at least a 90 percent attendance rate. Last year 2000 students participated in SHSI. Sandy Ferguson, executive director of middle school enrollment, said he anticipates that about the same number will enroll this year.

The DOE pre-selects students based on the above criteria, and applications for those students are sent to the student’s school, said a Bronx middle school guidance counselor who asked not to be identified. At his school, where more than 90 percent of the nearly 900 students are poor enough to qualify for free lunch, only four 6th graders are eligible this year.

Admitted students will attend five-week summer sessions in 2009 and 2010. Breakfast and lunch are included, although the schedule is still being finalized, Ferguson said. During the school year students will meet on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays.

In past years, some parents have complained that their school’s guidance counselor was unaware of the Specialized High School Institute application and thus their children missed the deadline. When asked if parents could submit their application directly to his office, Ferguson replied, “No, there’s a process and they should follow it.” Parents who haven’t received an application but think their children are eligible should contact the school’s guidance counselor. Non-public school students should mail their applications to the Office of Student Enrollment.

Got a question about the process? Contact Paul Shapiro, SHSI program director at PShapiro2@schools.nyc.gov or e-mail SHSI@schools.nyc.gov.

Immigrant parents want to participate in their children’s school, but too often experience barriers that make it difficult to do so, according to a 52-page report released today by Advocates for Children of New York.

“There is a common misconception that immigrant parents are not interested in getting involved in school activities, but 80% of immigrant parents we surveyed said they would like to be more involved in their children’s schools,” said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, a staff attorney in the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project at Advocates for Children, who was quoted in a press release about the report. “The DOE has to address what keeps these parents out of schools and lead a citywide effort to make schools more inclusive of immigrant communities.”

According to the report, Our Children, Our Schools: A Blueprint for Creating Partnerships Between Immigrant Families and New York City Public Schools, parents don’t know how to get involved and are made to feel unwelcome by school personnel. Immigrant parents say their concerns are often not addressed by administrators even when they make the effort to reach out to someone at the school. A few parents say they are active and involved because school staff speak their language and make efforts to include them in school activities.

The report, which surveyed 82 immigrant parents whose children attend New York City public schools and the staff at 16 community organizations, offers 48 recommendations on how to make schools more welcoming. Representatives from these community groups and public school immigrant parents attended a press conference held today by Advocates for Children to share their personal experiences, attesting to the barriers that the report documents.Parents who spoke at the press conference emphasized the need for schools to create parent identification cards for immigrant parents who do not have state-issued ID, one of the recommendations in the report. They acknowledged the need for school security but not to the extent that parents are effectively barred from entering their children’s schools.

The report suggests that all school employees be trained on how to create a welcoming environment for non-English speaking parents who are new to the education system. Additionally at the school level, the report advises that schools educate parents about parent associations and school leadership teams, as well as record phone messages in different languages. On a broader scale, the report advocates for the creation of an Immigrant Family Resource Center in each borough for parents who need assistance communicating with their school or resolving a problem.

The report stresses the importance of collaboration with community organizations that already serve as trusted resources for immigrant families. It suggests that the Department of Education would do well to tap into the knowledge of these organizations in developing resources for parents and in conducting well-planned outreach. As an example, the report notes that turnout for the DOE’s Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy Native Language Forums, which strive to inform parents about school-related issues in eight languages, significantly improved when community organizations were involved in an advisory committee to plan the meetings.

Advocates for Children Executive Director Kim Sweet said, “We’re really pleased with the content of this report, and we believe that it will have a significant impact on forming equal partnerships with immigrant families in the schools.”

-Catherine Man, additional reporting by Cristin Strining, March 18, 2009

Let’s take autism out of the summer camp equation for the moment. Let’s assume that my husband and I want Brooks to enjoy spending summers at camp (we do), and then let’s assume that we have a 4 or 5-figure sum to spare for the months of July and August (we don’t). Hmmm. Trouble already.

I suppose that’s what we get for living in Manhattan, where our family falls well below the average income level (translation: we don’t have a million dollars). The upside of this privileged borough: Brooks has benefited from consistently excellent therapists and autism interventions: after all, New York City has the best of the best. But it also has the worst of the worst, and I guess summer camp tuition falls into this category.

This is a new problem for us. Until starting kindergarten this year, Brooks was in a (free) year-round preschool. Three weeks off in late August meant a visit to his Canadian cousins. Of course, in those toddler days, 2 or 3 months without therapy was risky; major regressions were practically guaranteed. Now that Brooks is older, we’re not as concerned. Yes, he’ll need therapy in some shape or form, but we can afford to be a little more laid back (unless we’re in denial and kidding ourselves, which is always a possibility).

Because he’s in an Intensive K school, Brooks will qualify for the ASD Nest summer program — if it happens, but that won’t be confirmed until May or June. And it won’t be integrated. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Should Brooks be in an integrated environment? Or even a mainstream one?

Truth is, Brooks isn’t ready yet for a mainstream setting, and neither are we (we’d need more time to process that kind of leap). An integrated setting would probably be best, since we’ve always placed a major emphasis of exposing Brooks to typically-developing kids, and it’s worked pretty well for us so far. So I should be diligently looking for an integrated environment in our folder of special-ed summer camp brochures but I’m not. Finding any appropriate setting for Brooks is hard, and the prospect of putting that kind of time and energy into a 2-month gig is not at all appealing.

So for better or worse, I’m starting to think in a different direction: maybe Brooks and I will do some volunteer work together this summer. We might make a good team helping kids practice their reading skills, or learn how to use computers, or make art—all areas where Brooks excels. Or maybe we could even help prepare food at a soup kitchen, provided Brooks agrees to abandon his recent lemonade recipe.

Am I being a completely crazy, a little crazy, or does this make a modicum of sense?

If anyone has any other good summertime ideas (inside or outside the box), please post them as comments!

It can’t be pure coincidence that the DOE released a report highlighting gains made by English language learners less than a week after a boisterous mayoral-control hearing in the Bronx. And even though the report cites gains — three times as many students tested as English-proficient in 2008 than in 2003 — the actual percentages are still discouragingly low: In 2008, 13 percent of English language learners (ELLs) demonstrated proficiency, compared with 4 percent in 2003.

Language learners show test-score gains in fourth and eighth grade math as well, according to the DOE’s report (link here to pdf). But the Department of Education omits a key summary from the report in its good-news press release: “Elementary English language learners continue to make larger gains than middle school English language learners… The less dramatic gains by middle school ELLs, relatively flat Regents scores, and flat graduation rates (31.6% in 2003 and 30.8% in 2007) underscore the immediate demand for deeper, more focused attention.” In plain language, younger kids are doing better, as is often the case in language acquisition — and results for older kids aren’t nearly as encouraging.

In today’s Times, Javier Hernandez sets the counterpoint between DOE and education and immigrant advocates. He said that Angela M. Infante, deputy director of the DOE’s Office of ELL, suggested that “grim graduation rates were not the best metric on which to judge the city’s efforts.” But if not graduation rates, then what? The administration has repeatedly cited its obligation and desire to increase the high-school graduation rate and prepare students for post-secondary education and training. Either the buck stops at the graduation rate or it doesn’t.

High-school age language-learners represent 69% of new immigrants to the city schools. With one in four public school pupils born overseas, according to the DOE’s Deputy Chancellor Marcia Lyles, it’s hard to overstate the importance of educating kids born overseas. And with a 26 percent graduation rate, and a Regents diploma graduation rate of about 10 percent, the issue is not likely to fade from the public conversation anytime soon.

Today in Albany, the New York State Education Department issued its annual list of schools and districts in need of improvement (SINIs and DINIs, in education jargon.) Because these schools receive Title I funds, they are accountable to No Child Left Behind benchmarks, and face consequences that don’t apply to schools in more prosperous communities.

The good news: Of 543 current SINI schools statewide, the number newly listed, 62, is less than half of the 123 schools newly listed last year. Statewide, 85 schools were removed from the list, for making adequate yearly progress, including 44 schools in New York City. The percentage of schools considered “in good standing” in New York State has risen from 84 percent to 85.4 percent (with schools slated for closure omitted from the calculations). In New York City, the percentage of schools “in good standing” rose from 69 percent last year to 71.1 percent this year.

Most of the city schools new to the state’s SINI list are elementary and middle schools, many of which serve large populations of non-English speakers and students with special needs, both real challenges to test-score ‘progress. ‘ Of the six high schools added to the 2009 list, five are new small schools created during Klein’s small-school initiative. None of the six high schools received failing grades on their 2009 Progress Reports; in fact, two are too young to have progress reports published at all.

Look here for more on the how and why of state accountability; here, for consequences for failing schools, and on the links that follow for the state’s district-by-district list of all schools that need improvement and of this year’s new additions.

“My Life, My Lens,” a new summer film program for budding 7th- and 8th-grade auteurs, brings teachers, students, and filmmakers from the New York Film Academy together in a workshop designed to cultivate young talent.

The program, part of the Department of Education’s ongoing Campaign for Middle School Success, brings NYFA staff into the schools this spring to help develop scripts for consideration. Students can register independently, with a parent or another adult film partner, or through their school. For information, attend the final information workshop this week (the first two dates passed before the DOE made a formal announcement of the program).

By May 18, a panel of judges will select 250 finalists whose scripts will become actual films during the NYFA summer workshop. Funding for the project is supplied by NYFA and Best Buy, the electronics retailer that the DOE describes as “a national supporter of film education.”

Hollywood has the Oscars, New York has the Tonys (and sometimes, the Emmys and the Grammys, too) — but come fall, New York’s middle-schoolers will have a red-carpet premiere of their own, when NYFA judges will select and screen the summer’s winning films.

Applications for the program are due April 22. For more information, email NYCMSFF@nyc,gov. If your kid’s already posting videos on YouTube and Facebook, film camp just might be the perfect summer idyll. High-school and college-age students interested in a longer-term commitment might want to consider Ghetto FIlm School’s 15-month program; the deadline to apply is this Friday, March 20th.

Gotham Gazette Editor-in-Chief Gail Robinson takes a close look at the potentially thorny path from private parochial school to public charter school. She poses good questions about the fuzzy dividing lines between church and state, pointing out, for example, that public resources are already directed to parochial schools for transportation. Readers keen to keep abreast of trends in education — or to track the gathering momentum of charter growth in the city’s schools — take note.

Starting next month, the DOE will test English Language Learners at every grade level to assess their progress toward English proficiency — measurements critical to each school’s Progress Report, and to non-native speakers’ success on Regents exams and eventual graduation. To date, the news is grim, with fewer ELL students graduating high school in 2007 (the most recent data available) than in 2005. Even then, only 26.5 percent, or just over one in four, language-learners graduated in four years. Less than one in ten 2007 ELL graduates earned a Regents diploma.

At a contentious hearing on Friday in the Bronx, services for language-learners took center stage — and earned the derision of Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo, who accused the DOE’s Maria Santos of flat-out lying about increased resources for ELL students since the institution of mayoral control.

The New York Immigrant Coalition highlighted two dire ‘data points’ that deserve wider mention: First, only 5 percent of ELL 8th graders scored Level 3 — at grade level — on the statewide English Language Arts exam, a statistic that doesn’t bode well for high-school success. They also noted that the numbers of high schoolers plummet after 10th grade, when “nearly half of ELLs disappear from school rosters.” (Once students turn 17, they are not legally obliged to attend school. The NYIC says many are pushed out of school, drop out, or are redirected to GED and transfer/alternative high school programs.)

The Times‘ current focus on immigration in the nation’s schools and a report today on local success stories – that small fraction of kids who have made it to higher ed — should not mask focus on the 150,000 public school students who are not native speakers, or blunt attention to their profound needs, or the DOE’s responsibility to provide language, as well as academic, education.

In keeping with the news of the week from Washington, we asked readers what they thought of charter schools. The short report: There’s no groundswell of opinion — in any direction. Click here to see the results.

About 30 percent of poll respondents support more charter development, while 23 percent each felt that charters threaten traditional publics or that charters were both good and bad (much like traditional schools). Notably, about one in four people said they just didn’t know enough about charters to offer an informed opinion; for those with questions, check out this basic guide, DOE’s charter info, and the state’s Charter School Institute, for lots of detailed information on established and new charter schools. (And rest assured, we’ll be covering charters going forward, and will gladly respond to reader questions and comments.)

This week marked high season for standardized testing; whether your child is in elementary or middle school, or a high-school student facing the Regents, we’re curious about their experience getting ready for the tests. We’d also love to hear from teachers and administrators about their school’s test-prep practices — please, weigh in on the poll, and share your thoughts in the comments string, too.

Those who like to read between the lines should peruse the sheaf of letters printed today on the Times‘ editorial page in response to last week’s profile-in-power of Chancellor Joel Klein. One has to wonder how many letters are rejected for every letter published and how the mix of pro and con — and professional-academic writers versus plain citizens — is decided.

Also worth noting is David Brooks’ column, praising President Obama’s recent education address. But it’s funny how parenthetical phrases can reveal an essential difference in understanding. Here’s what Brooks writes, in the context of Obama’s proposal to scale up merit pay:

“…[I]t would increase merit pay for good teachers (the ones who develop emotional bonds with children) and dismiss bad teachers (the ones who treat students like cattle to be processed).”

Brooks’ definition of good and bad teachers is not what’s rewarded by Klein and the accountability crowd at DOE, where merit is correlated with academic progress, as measured by test scores, and reflected in annual progress reports. Teachers and schools get high grades and cash for raising achievement, how they do it isn’t the issue. While one would like to believe that building strong personal relationships helps kids make academic progress, it is by no means the DOE’s yardstick or criteria for merit pay. (Learning environment surveys touch on teaching — and contribute only slightly to a school’s progress report grade.)

Does David Brooks believe that the teachers who the kids love get DOE love, too? “No picnic” is right.

A funny thing is happening in school districts around the city: the Department of Education is trying to pioneer our town’s first Charter Zones.

The DOE recently announced that it will close four neighborhood schools—PS 241 in District 3, PS 194 in District 5, PS 150 in District 23, and PS 72 in District 19—and then announced proposals to replace each of the schools with new charters, rather than new neighborhood schools. Now here is a question: does emptying a zone of all zoned schools constitute a change in the zone?

According to New York State Education Law, authority to approve changes in zoning lines rests in the hands of Community District Education Councils. In addition, the Legislature expressly required DOE to consult with a CDEC before the closing of any school in that district. With these provisions, the Legislature intended to protect parents’ rights and voices in decisions that directly impact their children’s schools, and to ensure parents’ engagement on issues that affect the quality of their children’s education.

Numerous organizations and elected officials, including the Alliance for Quality Education, as well as CDECs from various parts of the city, are starting to come together over the DOE’s practice of ignoring state law. A number of CDECs have passed resolutions, which is what CDECs do when they get mad. Here’s one from CDEC3 jointly with the District 3 President’s Council, one from CDEC26, and another from CDEC15.

On WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show yesterday, Chancellor Klein said of District 3 “we work closely with them, actually we did a rezoning up there with them that I think was very successful.” (Maybe Brian will bring on some District 3 parent leaders to tell their own stories next time.) Personally, I wonder why the Chancellor decided, within days after that “very successful” zoning process was concluded, to slam the door shut on legally mandated parent involvement.

Future Voters of America seeks to improve the lives of youth around the city, by listening closely to the concerns of kids and teenagers and empowering them to take up their own fight. I go to their weekly meetings and find their work and perspective truly unique. Their annual youth congress, which will be held this year on April 24th, brings hundreds of high school students together to discuss and pass resolutions on issues critical to their lives, through four sub-committees on school issues, environmental issues, teen issues and youth in politics. Each sub-committee comes up with two resolutions.

At the end of each congress, students defend their resolutions and get to vote on two final resolutions chosen from the eight presented. Future Voters then works to advance the resolutions with members of the U.S. Congress; they’re currently working on lowering the voting age in municipal elections to 16 - a resolution voted on in a past congress- and are organizing a series of campaigns to do so. Their method is impressive, because it shows a true dedication to the desires of youth and students. Rather than work for the things that the adults who facililiate the nonprofit feel are important, the focus is on what kids are really asking for. The FVA annual congress is a cornerstone of democracy and youth empowerment.

This week, I attended their forum on environmental issues, meant to prepare congress leaders for this year. My dad Kenny Bruno, of Corporate Ethics International, sat on the panel. “I’m impressed by the engagement of the students from Future Voters that I met today,” he said. We spent an hour and a half discussing environmental issues and how schools and student life can be part of the solution. There were about 20 kids there from as many as 10 high schools. Some of the students were appropriately skeptical of claims by companies that they have “turned green.” Another point of high interest was green jobs. The students were intrigued by the possibility of powering schools with solar panels or other renewable energy sources. Eventually, the environmental committee of Future Voters will choose two of these topics and craft two resolutions. I’m very curious to see what they choose to focus on.”

The congress is being held on April 24, and all high school students are welcome; contact FVA for details on location and timing. It is a full-day event, and qualifies as a legal school trip day. Community service hours are given for all students who attend. This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard through a student-led, democratic process.

For the admirably organized, think-ahead planners among us, the school calendar for the coming academic year, 2009-2010, has been posted on the DOE website. School begins Tuesday, September 8th, the day after Labor Day, and ends on Friday, June 25th. (Dates of instruction vary for charter schools; these dates are for public, non-charter elementary, middle, secondary and high schools.)

Summer school dates are posted as well; all instruction is scheduled to take place between July 1st and August 11th.

In April, just a few weeks away, all charter schools in New York City will hold lotteries to select their students for the 2009-2010 school year. Most of the new charter schools, however, still don’t have a building. Of the 24 charter schools expected to open in fall 2009, only seven schools have an address, four of which cannot disclose their location until March 12.

The last-minute rush to find space for a new charter school is not new. When Voice Charter School opened in Queens last year, they didn’t find a home until ten days before their lottery. “Everything was tentative. We really couldn’t say where we would be,” said Principal Frank Headley. “It did confuse parents.”

Charter schools are approved one year prior to their opening in September, but the Department of Education doesn’t determine whether DOE space is available until January, said Mike Duffy, executive director of the city’s charter school office. Although charter schools can choose to obtain private space and determine their location sooner, most decide not to for financial reasons.

In New York State, charter schools do not receive money for operating expenses, such as facilities, but in New York City, charter schools housed in a DOE facility reside rent-free. “They don’t pay a dollar,” said Duffy. As a result, charter schools play the waiting game and often amend their charters to fit their new location. “A charter is applied for a specific neighborhood… if they end up getting sited in a different district they need to amend their charter,” said Duffy. “The law requires them to admit kids in their district.”

Girls Prep of East Harlem planned to serve English Language Learners in District 4. They recently learned there is no space in East Harlem, and they will be moved to the South Bronx. Equality Charter School asked to be in District 12, but will be placed in District 11. Duffy says some schools don’t care where they are located, while others are “so focused on the neighborhood they get private space because it’s so integral to their mission,” he said.

Still others may end up not opening at all if they can’t find adequate facilities. Principal Jeffrey Litt at Carl C. Icahn Charter School says he needs 10 classrooms and an office in order to open Icahn #4 in September 2009. The space would be temporary. Icahn is currently building a “multi-million dollar facility,” to house both Icahn #3 and Icahn #4, but it won’t be ready for a few years, said Litt.

When will the locations be announced? Stay tuned to Insideschools.org for updates.

This fall 24 charter schools are expected to open across New York City, bringing the total number of city charter schools to more than 100. Although classes don’t begin until next August or September, parents must submit an application by April 1. If schools receive more applications than there are places available - and they almost always do - they must hold lotteries to select their students.

Some schools belong to existing charter school networks; others are organized around specific themes. A few are single sex. Many schools promote uniforms and a back-to- basics curriculum, while others say they will use more progressive teaching approaches. Most of the new schools still don’t know where they will be located although the majority will be in Brooklyn.

Here’s a rundown on what Insideschools.org has learned about the new schools.

Established school networks

Many of the new charter schools are joining established networks of schools that share a similar philosophy and academic model.

• KIPP NYC College Prep High School in Manhattan joins a national group of 66 schools and will be the first KIPP school in New York to have grades 9-12. Only students who attend a KIPP middle school can apply to the high school. KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx, currently a middle school, is now opening admissions to younger students and will expand to include elementary school grades.
• Achievement First (AF) will continue to expand its network of Brooklyn charter schools. Current 5th-graders at AF East New York Elementary School will make up the 6th grade class at AF East New York Middle School, a new 6-8 school opening in September. Likewise, AF Crown Heights Middle School’s 8th-graders will become the first class at AF Crown Heights High School the second high school within the AF network.
• The non-profit group Uncommon Schools is opening three more schools in Brooklyn, each of which replicates an existing school model:Brownsville Collegiate Charter School, modeled after Williamsburg Collegiate;Leadership Preparatory Brownsville Charter School, modeled after Leadership Prep Charter School of Bedford-Stuyvesant;Excellence Charter School for Girls, sister school to Excellence Charter, an all-boys school.
• The Foundation for a Greater Opportunity, founded by Carl C. Icahn, is slated to open a fourth charter school in the Bronx named after the philanthropist. Like the three older schools, Carl C. Icahn Charter School 4 is likely to open as an elementary school.
• The Brooklyn Scholars Charter School is managed by National Heritage Academies. NHA provides education programs to 57 charter schools in six different states, including the Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School. The school will open with 196 students in grades K-4.

Three other schools based on existing models in New York include the first siblings of Brooklyn Ascend Charter School in Brownsville, Explore Charter School in Flatbush and the single-sex, Girls Preparatory Charter School on the Lower East Side.

• Brownsville Ascend Charter School will open with kindergarten and 1st grade students, and ultimately serve students in grades K-12.
• Also in Brooklyn, Explore Charter School 2 will open with kindergartners, first- and second-graders, and serve grades K- 8.
• Girls Prep 2 will enroll girls for kindergarten and 1st grade in the Bronx, and plans to expand to the 8th grade.

Themed schools

A few of the charters stand out for their themes.

• The Hebrew Language Academy will concentrate on Hebrew language and culture.
• The Ethical Community Charter School (TECCS) promises students a strong ethics curriculum that will promote community service and social justice.
• Growing Up Green, the only new charter in Queens, will infuse environmentally-friendly thinking into all aspects of instruction.
• Academic Leadership, a K-5 school, plans to teach “character education and develop ethical and responsible citizens,” according to its charter application.

Secondary schools

Among this year’s crop of schools, secondary schools that span middle and high school grades are a popular model.

• Two 6-12 schools will be located in District 15: Summit Academy in Red Hook and Brooklyn Prospect in Sunset Park. Brooklyn Prospect will follow the International Baccalaureate diploma program, while Summit Academy will concentrate on improving students’ basic skills with 100 minutes each of English and math daily.
• The first charter in South Brooklyn, Coney Island Prep, is a 5-12 school.
• In Flatbush, Fahari Academy focuses on the basics, and will offer its students an increasingly progressive approach to learning as they grow and mature from grade 5 through 12.
• Equality Charter School is a 6-12 charter in the Bronx.
• The Equity Project Charter School in Washington Heights will test whether high teacher salaries improve student performance. Teachers earn a $125,000 annual salary with the potential to gain additional yearly bonuses.

High schools

In addition to KIPP and Achievement First, the Believe High School Network is also starting two charter high schools this fall. Believe North Side Charter High School and Believe South Side Charter High School will open in the same building in Williamsburg.

How to apply

Anybody living in New York may apply to a charter school but priority in admissions is given to students living in the district where the school is located. A few schools also reserve seats for students who are at risk of failing. To get an application, call the school or check its website. You may be able to download the application online, or you may have to go to an open house to pick one up. Either way, schools must consider any applications received by April 1. Many charter schools are hosting information sessions. Check the schools’ websites for updated information.

See our charter school primer for more information about charter schools.

If you don’t have a child with autism, you may never have heard the term: “PDD.” It stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder and it’s a common diagnosis for young children on the autism spectrum. It is more vague than autism, and even though it’s been explained to me many times, I have to admit that I don’t really get the distinction between the two. So there’s a lot to dislike about “PDD” — it’s not in the common lexicon, it’s confusing, and when you do finally get a handle on what it is, no one in the real world knows what you’re talking about.

But I like the word “pervasive” a lot, because no matter which diagnosis your child has, this apt term tells it like it is: This diagnosis is going to affect everything in your child’s life. Not just speech, not just social skills, not just learning, not just fine and gross motor skills; everything. Including food.

Brooks’s eating challenges started at birth. We know now that the muscles in his mouth, the same ones that later failed him when he tried to speak, were too weak to breast feed. At the time we simply settled into bottle-feeding and chalked it up to one of those situations where “plan b” was not so bad. His next major detour off the “typical” food road was when he turned one and we switched from formula to milk, which prompted him to go on a liquid strike. Even our efforts to return to formula were fruitless; we had, it seemed, ruined his experience of drinking beyond repair, and that was that. So for about a year, Brooks didn’t drink. Fortunately, he never failed to thrive: he was still eating a lot of water-based baby food.

A large part of his initial therapy was re-introducing liquids, and slowly, he did start to drink again. His eating habits were picky and compulsive — his “safe” foods were few, and favored for every meal if we let him (and we often had little choice). Then he was done with them, and chose two or three new ones. During this time, we put Brooks on the GFCF (gluten-free casein-free) diet for two major reasons: it was very healthy, and there were anecdotes that it would help his autism, if not cure it. Perhaps that’s the case for a some kids (although none I know), but after a year and a half, Brooks’s major delays persisted. We opted to expand his palate to any food he would try, regardless of its dietary content.

Mealtimes with toddlers are often fraught, but with Brooks, they were always challenging. When he was very young, I had to sing to get him to eat anything. Then it was my turn to go on strike, forcing him into non-musical meals. Our “positive reinforcement” model was never on display as much as when Brooks actually tried a new food — we made up songs for him, we played instruments, we danced (and we are NOT dancers!).

Bit by bit (or, rather, bite by bite), Brooks has expanded his food repertoire into typical childhood favorites: mac and cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti. He eats more with his hands than we’d like him to, he has trouble chewing pizza crust, and I would still sell a major organ to see him eat an actual vegetable. But I no longer have to bring food with me all the time or worry that he won’t find something to eat at a play date, restaurant, or even a birthday party.

Not only is Brooks eating more like an actual person these days (which my husband and I feared would never happen), he’s also talking about food more than ever: check out his inspired recipe for lemonade:

Much of the public debate, blog buzz, and press coverage of President Obama’s education address yesterday has focused on his strong endorsement of charter schools, which are publicly funded schools managed by private, non-DOE authorities, some for profit and some not. The Times highlighted Obama’s call to lift the cap on charter development (in place in 26 states and the District of Columbia), and on merit pay for teachers. The News gathered a consensus of largely positive (if generalized) responses from education leaders like Joel Klein and teachers-union head Randi Weingarten. The Post focused on merit pay along with Obama’s charter mandate.

The simple fact of an education debate at center stage is cause for a certain kind of celebration. But it’s worth remembering, as NYU education professor Pedro Noguera noted this morning, that charters serve a small minority of New York City students compared to traditional schools and that many charters (though not all) can choose to enroll certain kids and decline to work with children with special needs or who require English language instruction. A longer school day and year mean that most charter school teachers work without a union contract — even despite some teachers’ desire to organize – and that often charter school teachers are younger and less-seasoned than many of their public-school peers. Charters that share a building with a traditional elementary school often enjoy smaller classes and more ample resources — benefits of the charter structure — that can look unfair to kids, families, and teachers on the other side of the charter fence.

Bottom line, charter schools are a mixed bag, with some showing outstanding results and others mired in drill-and-kill, test-dense curricula. This will come as no surprise to those with experience in the city’s schools, where excellent schools coexist with so-so schools (and worse). My question is, if a rising tide lifts all boats — as Education Secretary said in a recent radio interview – how does diverting streams of that tide, as kids and their engaged, proactive families exit mainstream schools for charters, still help the whole?

Note: See our articles, published today, about the 24 new charter schools opening in the city in the fall of 2009 and their struggles to find spaces for their schools. We also have published previews of all of the new charter schools.

Q: My son is a sophomore in high school. I have a few questions. 1) Should he begin test prep for the SAT this year? 2) How many times can he take the SATs? and, 3) if he takes it more than once, which scores do the colleges see?

A: These are important questions. Before I begin to preach, let me give you the short answers:

1. No, it’s too early.
2. As many times as he wants (but I recommend only twice).
3. Colleges will see only those scores that your son will “release” for them to see.

Now for the details: the SAT and the other nationally known test, the ACT, are important hurdles for students to clear on their way to college. But they are hurdles, not education itself. They are important, particularly when applying to the most selective colleges, but they are not the most important factor in college admissions.

The most important factor is the high school transcript, the record of which courses student has chosen to take and how he or she has done in those courses. College admissions officers are more interested in how students do semester to semester, year to year in high school, than they are in how well they do during a three-hour period on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

The SAT, while designed to be a fair test that would assess the ability of all test-takers, is not a fair test. It is culturally biased towards native speakers of American English, so if students are immigrants or live in a home where more than one language is spoken, the critical reading score will be affected. Students who are affluent can afford more coaching and prepping than their less affluent peers. The test is not a perfect instrument. It’s necessary, though, so we have to put up with it. But we should not over-emphasize it.

Prepping for the test is a good idea because students need to be familiar with the test format and need practice taking it. And yes, there are certain strategies and tricks that can be taught. But starting to do this too early can cause unnecessary stress. I say, wait until junior year to start any test prep program.

There are other ways to help your son to do well. Encourage him to study hard and take his high school classes seriously. If he does well in his math classes, chances are he’ll do fine on the math section of the SAT or ACT. The single best way to do well on the critical reading scores is to read! Encourage your son to read anything. Science fiction, sports magazines, a daily newspaper, mysteries, a biography. The more he reads, the better he’ll do in school and on the standardized tests. Simply memorizing random lists of vocabulary words doesn’t help. Over and over I have seen that students who practice reading on a consistent, daily basis do better on the critical reading section of the SAT than students who simply do test prep.

And I would limit taking the test to twice. Take it once, see how you do, then spend some months concentrating on improving your skills, and take it again. Three times, if you absolutely must. But more than that no. No one will stop a student from taking the test as many times as it is given. Some test-prep tutors actually recommend that students take the test every time it’s given!

That idea is very unhealthy. It over-emphasizes the importance of standardized testing over academic performance, extra-curricular involvement, creativity, and all the personal characteristics that make up the total human being who becomes a college applicant.

The colleges will see only those scores which the student wants to send. This is the policy called “Score Choice,” through which the College Board says it gives control over the scores to students. But some colleges say they want all scores, so can “Score Choice” be trusted? More on this in my next column.

 Have a question for Jane?  Search archives | Contact the College Counselor

Dear Judy,*

We tried to register my son for kindergarten last week but were denied because of insufficient documentation. We were given a “tentative” registration but told to return with more documents ASAP.

We live in the school’s zone (we’re not trying to “game” the system) but we’re stumped as to how to meet the tough standards for documentation. We live in a co-op (thus utility bills are in the co-ops’ name, not ours) and also do all of our personal banking and bill paying electronically. In addition, my office is paperless as well, with all payroll on line. Because the schools do not accept computer print outs of documents, we are having trouble.

- Cyberdad

Dear Cyberdad,

According to Marty Barr, the director of elementary school enrollment, there are ways to get around proving residence despite the problems caused by living in a co-op and in a totally paperless universe.

You say the school accepted the documents that you submitted re the co-op, namely a mortgage statement. Another acceptable document is a proprietary lease with your name and address on it. But that is only one category. You need proof from another.

Here are some suggestions from the Department of Education for the second proof:

Request a letter from the human resources department in your office (there must be some official letterhead stationery around.) The letter should attest to the fact that your company submits payroll deductions, W2’s and 1099’s to the IRS using your address. The letter should be dated and mailed to you and you should submit the letter in the envelope, showing that you received it at your address. He also said that you can request a letter from your bank attesting to your address, and mailed to your address.

There are other possibilities including a letter from any other official agency on letterhead such as a tax refund from the state or federal government, a jury notice, an overdue parking ticket, or a letter from the social security administration re your status. You can request this if you have not received it but timing can’t be predicted.

You may find the list of documents required for registration on the Department’s website. You can find more information about enrolling in kindergarten in our Basics section.

Good luck,

Judy

*This question was not sent to Insideschools.org but was posted on a Brooklyn parent listserv.

 Have a school question for Judy?  Search archives | Contact Judy

Today, President Obama will address the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the topic of education, building a national plan based on Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone ‘cradle to college’ approach.

Obama’s “cradle to career” education agenda is detailed here. While the speech today is not expected to address No Child Left Behind legislation, it will address early childhood efforts, merit pay for teachers, raising academic rigor, financial aid, and the charge, to parents to take responsibility for their children’s education and their own — heard most recently in Obama’s address to Congress .

What have you done to improve your own education? How do you ‘model’ lifelong learning for your children? And are families able to put learning first when they are battling poverty or chronic illness and have meager resources and unstable living conditions? Stimulus money or not, that’s the trillion-dollar question.

Update: See the Times’ quick take on the Obama education speech here; especially illuminating comments amplify and frame the debate.

Parents of children born in 2005 — who will turn four in calendar year 2009 — can find pre-kindergarten applications, information and school directories online. (A curious disclaimer appears when you click on the ‘applications’ link, which says “The site you are about to visit may not be under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Education and thus the Department of Education may not be responsible for its content.” Doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence; clarification is anticipated later today from DOE.)

The DOE’s cautionary note deserves a mention, too: since the applications are NOT processed on a first-come, first-serve basis, parents should take time and care to make good choices for their kids and not feel pressed to submit the application pronto. The deadline for applications is April 3.

Some local listservs have been buzzing with concerns about pre-K siblings displacing children who do not have older siblings in elementary school. It’s easy to get caught up in this, but know that last year, siblings represented a distinct minority of pre-K students who were offered seats. Also important to note: families who wish to enroll younger sibs in their older child’s school must list that school first; the preference doesn’t hold without the primary ranking.

Update: According to Andy Jacob of the DOE’s press office, the application resides on a different server but is fully under DOE direction. The disclaimer, which he says “might be confusing for some people,” will be removed from the site.

Earlier this week, a New York Magazine item by former New York Sun reporter Jacob Gershman asked whether Chancellor Joel Klein might lose his high perch in the contest for mayoral control, given Klein’s bad reviews by parents and law-makers at a recent hearing. Insideschools highlighted questions on the Department of Education’s contracts, covered by the Post and elsewhere — and tabled by City Council. Next, Gail Robinson, Gotham Gazette’s editor in chief, aka the Wonkster, gathered a passel of press clips in a post on the DOE’s dubious contract machinations. And today in the Times, Elissa Gootman’s front-page story asks whether Klein’s position might be on the mayoral-control chopping block. With remarks pro and con from ex-council member turned charter school impresario Eva Moscowitz and UFT/AFT head Randi Weingarten, and quotes both attributed and anonymous from Albany pols, has the Chancellor’s tenure become a political hot potato? (Even actor Alan Alda has something positive to say about his friend and pizza partner.)

An apparently unruffled chancellor posed for dramatic, sunlit photos as part of the Times interview — and expressed confidence in his work and the DOE’s vision of change. “There is no daylight” between the Klein and the mayor on education policy, he said. The feeling’s mutual, according to the mayor, who said “Maybe the best thing I ever did was pick the best chancellor any school system has ever had.” (But see GothamSchools for questions on how closely aligned the mayor and the chancellor really are.)

Both the mayor and the chancellor hail from the “you’ve gotta break some eggs to make an omelet” school. As D.C. schools chief (and Time magazine cover girl) Michelle Rhee said: “…Sometimes a leader can see things that other people can’t see, and has to push things that they know are the right things to push, and it takes other folks a little longer to get there.”

Well, it seems the “other folks” are getting restless. And the unrest is likely to percolate all spring. Whether it will result in change — and what that change might be — remains entirely open to speculation. (Which is expected to continue all spring, as well.)

With a snow day to start the week, our poll asking about outdoor play in bitter weather yielded a split response: A plurality of parents said “outside optional” made the most sense, nearly as many said that indoor play or watching a movie was better on winter days. A bunch of hardy souls think kids should play outside, weather notwithstanding, while very, very few — less than 3 percent — said schools should skip recess in lieu of more learning.

This week, we’re curious about charter schools. With a new wave of charters set to open in the fall, wide community concern about the charters’ effect on conventional schools, and a Mayor, Chancellor, and US Education Secretary who have all strongly supported charter schools, what do you think? Let us know.