All eighth and ninth graders who applied to high schools should have a placement by today, although they may not all be pleased with their assignment. The 7,455 students who were not matched in the first round of the high school process were asked to re-rank their preferences from a list of schools with available space. They could have listed up to 12 choices, but students and parents complained the options were limited. In the supplementary round, all students were matched with a school, regardless of whether they had ranked it or not.

“Any students who didn’t get a placement in a school that they had ranked were given a place at a school with available seats,” said Andrew Jacob, a spokesperson for the Department of Education. One parent posted that her child was placed at a school she didn’t rank. “The supplementary round is back and my daughter was accepted to a school,” the parent wrote. “The letter should have said “congratulations you have been excepted [sic] to a new school that you have never heard about, does not exist yet and that you did not apply to.”Students who want to appeal their assignment from either the main admissions round or the supplementary round must meet with their guidance counselor and explain their reason for the appeal before the form is due on May 7, according to Jacobs. Students must list three programs or schools in order of preference.

(more…)

“Senioritis” can hit hard — and there seems to be nothing anyone can do about it.  As one former LaGuardia senior said to me,  “It comes all at once, and it’s really painful.”  But at least one city high school has found the answer to those appallingly unproductive last few months of high school: Internships.

At the Institute for Collaborative Education (ICE),  second-semester seniors have internships instead of classes.  They can choose an internship that suits their interests, so that they  have a daily, real-world activity that  keeps them engaged and challenged.  As an added bonus, they gain experiences in a potential future work field that can help prepare them for college – and improve their resume.

My friend Maya, who is a second-semester senior at ICE, has two internships that mean a lot to her, at a fertility center and a photography center.  So instead of cutting math class for two months, she’s getting these awesome life experiences.

I think more high schools should consider internships for second-semester seniors, because being productive beats waiting for the time to pass any day.

The Department of Education is “discharging” an increasing number of students, who are not counted in the graduation rates but may have dropped out of school, according to report released today by the Public Advocate’s office. Up to and above a quarter of all children of color and with special needs, including students who are English language learners, are documented as high-school discharges, as are 21 percent of students overall. That works out to one in five students who start high school and then are ostensibly ‘discharged’ to other schools or other locations, with little precision or transparency on causes and outcomes. These numbers are on the rise since a seminal report in 2002.

The Times offers a cogent analysis; internet education wonks will recognize one of the report’s authors, Jennifer Jennings, as the “unmasked” Eduwonkette, whose anonymous columns, supported by careful, meticulous research, challenged the DOE on a regular basis.

One particularly troubling observation documented in the report is the high discharge rate for students in the first year of high school — before they’re 17, the legal age at which students may elect to end their public education and drop out. It is unclear what this surge represents, but the report charges that younger, struggling students are being pushed out of high schools that are trying to improve Progress Report grades. Without these students being counted, school statistics may increase, which offers schools “perverse incentives to discharge students,” according to the report. Regardless, what is crystalline is that far too many kids are unaccounted for, and that graduation rate calculation and reporting is undoubtedly influenced by this practice.

Kids in foster care from across the city gathered Friday afternoon in the Lewis Auditorium at Hunter College to watch Speak for Yourself, a passionate documentary which describes the challenging lives of New York City foster youth and clarifies their legal rights. The film, produced by Friends of Foster Youth, will be publicly released within the next two weeks.

The film emphasizes ten of the basic rights afforded to foster youth. For example, foster youth can request to go home to their biological parents; they can suggest who should be their foster parent, such as a family member, a friend’s mom, or neighbor; they can fire their attorney; and they cannot be discharged to a homeless shelter at age 21. (more…)

The hundreds of kindergarteners on waiting lists for schools all over the city are not the only sign of crowding in the schools, as many schools fear being forced to open extra classes in rooms that are now used for art and music. Rather than looking for the source of these failures in enrollment projections or capital planning, the Department of Education is going on the offensive against parents. In this case, their target is parents and parent associations who fund part-time arts, chess, and assistant teachers to make up for DOE shortfalls. The new DOE approach threatens to end services for hundreds if not thousands of children.

In a series of letters and school visits, the DOE has asserted that parents must hand their money over to DOE, subject to DOE rules about timing and amounts, before that money can be used to pay for part time aides and enrichment. A few years ago Klein abolished Project Arts, the program that used to reserve funds to ensure that all public school kids would receive music, dance, and visual arts. Now the DOE is trying to crack down on parents’ efforts to provide access to these fundamentals of a decent education. (more…)

I have an overactive imagination. I also have an acute sense of impending doom that I inherited directly from my grandmother: “If you’re 5 minutes late, you’re under a bus.” This is a bad combination.

Whenever Brooks gets a fever, I need to convince myself that he doesn’t have meningitis or another type of virus that can kill within a day. I’m not crazy — I don’t ever say anything out loud and I know how statistically unlikely it is – but these nightmarish thoughts own a substantial piece of my mental real estate, and they rise up at the slightest provocation.

Can someone please advise me how to distinguish irrational fears from rational ones? After all, against all odds, planes did fly into the World Trade Center. My father’s ”flu” turned out to be a rare stomach cancer that killed him. And Brooks did get diagnosed with autism. All of these events were unexpected and unlikely, and yet, they happened. I suppose there’s a longer list of the bad things that didn’t happen, but I can’t seem to focus on that list. (more…)

After a stormy tenure as principal of MS 8, The New Preparatory Middle School, in Queens, and despite strong support from the Department of Education, Principal John Murphy stepped down yesterday, following more than a month of daily protests by parents and teachers and a hailstorm of negative press. In a formal statement, Chancellor Klein said “Principal Murphy has come to believe that his continued presence at MS 8 is distracting from the school’s learning environment and focus on student academic performance.”

Murphy has been charged by the school’s teachers with grade-fixing and tongue-lashings severe enough to send recipients to the hospital; political and civic leaders, from City Council members to the NAACP, as well as parents, have actively challenged his leadership. Assistant Principal Cheryl Spencer will lead the school until a formal appointment is announced.

Only 100 parents attended the District 3 kindergarten lottery last week after the Department of Education announced that many popular schools did not have available seats.

“Parents were disappointed that they didn’t have a full range of options as they have had in the past four years since the lottery has been in operation,” said Robin Aronow, founder of School Search NYC, who attended the lottery.

The announcement, made on the Friday before the April 21 lottery, dealt a blow to the roughly 760 hopeful families seeking an alternative to their neighborhood school. A few of the most desirable schools, such as PS 87 and PS 166, had no seats available. And of the 251 openings, parents were informed that several schools, such as PS 9, would only be able to accept students with older siblings enrolled at the school. (more…)

This week, 8th-graders across New York City are taking standardized science tests, part of the battery of state tests public school students undergo every year. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, is the national yardstick against which state tests are measured; newly released ‘trend’ results from 2008 testing showcase nuggets of good news among a discouraging landscape. (The full report is available here; here’s a link to the Executive Summary. )

Overall, national averages show that younger students are making better progress in math than in reading, but scores for older students flatten to near-nil by the end of high school. For example, 9-year-olds bettered their math scores by 4 points (on a 500-scale, for context) since 2004, and by 24 points since 1973. Thirteen-year-olds have improved 15 points since ‘73 — but only 3 points since ‘04. Results are flat for 17-year-olds, from 1973 to 2008. (more…)

Journalist and occasional Insideschools blogger Lauren Young comments on kindergarten admissions:

What if your child didn’t get into kindergarten at your local public school? As reported here, the waiting list for a spot at highly lauded P.S. 41 or P.S. 3 has reached 90 children. My son’s best friend Ben is among those shut out in the West Village; he’s No. 79 on the wait list. Ben’s mom is worried that he will start asking if he did something “wrong” because he wasn’t accepted to kindergarten at P.S. 41. “I so resent New York for all this,” she says. “They’ll place him ’somewhere,’ but…I just don’t want him ’somewhere,’ you know? Ugh.” The problem seems most severe on the Upper East Side, where 350 children cannot get into kindergarten at their local schools, according to Class Size Matters. and Department of Education planners are considering siting a new kindergarten in the basement of a crowded, popular East Side middle school.

On Tuesday, May 5 at 3:30 pm, Ben’s mom and other concerned parents will rally on the steps of City Hall to protest school overcrowding. (The rally is sponsored by Class Size Matters, Manhattan Task Force on School Overcrowding, Community Education Council of District 2, Parent Leaders of Upper East Side Schools, Public School Advocacy Committee, Community Board 2 and other groups.)

This madness probably feels familiar to veterans of New York City’s preschool admissions scramble. Indeed, Nursery University is a new movie about the insanity of landing a coveted spot at a desirable private-school, pre-kindergarten program. (It’s more competitive than getting accepted to an Ivy League school!) I see a sequel in the works: Kindergarten Wars, coming to theaters, and Netflix queues, all too soon.

As reporting and speculation about the emergent swine flu virus continues to dominate the local media, city health authorities urge caution and common sense precautions to prevent illness and potential transmission.

Look here for detailed information and recommendations from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; here’s what the Department of Education has posted for students and adults at the city’s schools. Now is the time to teach young kids how to shield a cough – instructions are posted online in 14 languages — and to reinforce careful hand-washing (and stockpile antibacterial goo, too).

To date, the only documented cases of swine flu in New York City remain confined to St. Francis Preparatory Academy in Queens.

While the official mayoral control debate continues ahead of the State Assembly vote in June, activists both in and out of government are taking up the issue, in print and at a panel in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon, chaired by GothamSchools‘ Elizabeth Green. The “neat thing” about Sunday’s panel,  Green wrote prior to the discussion, was the anti-mayoral control, pro-reform stance of the panelists, including UFT VP-at-large Carmen Alvarez, Assembly member (and former principal) Inez Barron, and representatives from the Parent Commission on School Governance and DC 37’s Local 372, opponents of both mayoral control and this particular Mayor. (The “Mend It or End It” meeting was sponsored by Education Voters of New York.)

Coming up this week, on Thursday April 30, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and State Assembly member Linda B. Rosenthal will host a Town Hall on the topic; call 212-873-6368 to reserve a seat.

Former New York Sun education reporter Andrew Wolf’s editorial in Saturday’s Daily News compares the lack of oversight at the current Department of Education to Enron pre-debacle. He  cites concerns about outsize education spending, standardized testing,  graduation criteria, and the high remediation rate at the CUNY schools, where many New York City grads continue their education. About three-quarters of incoming CUNY students require remediation, he writes,  forcing questions as to what kind of proficiency  a New York City high school diploma truly confers.

New to the issue of mayoral control of the schools ? Get up to speed with Gail Robinson’s excellent recap and analysis, posted on Gotham Gazette.

Stories today in the Daily News and on the Huffington Post highlight parent frustrations with kindergarten enrollment; chatter we’re hearing describes hundreds of children waitlisted for the most desirable Manhattan primary schools. Up to 90 children are waitlisted at PS 3 and PS 41,popular schools that share a zone in Greenwich Village; Department of Education spokesperson Andy Jacob cautions patience as this plays out. Parents on the waitlist received letters from the DOE outlining the process.

Many forces are at play in kindergarten admissions. Changes this year to an application process that allows families to apply to multiple schools, along with what’s widely perceived to be increased demand for public schools, have caused their share of confusion. Here’s what we’ve learned about the two schools in question:

PS 3 and PS 41 each had more than 100 kindergarten students in 2007-08, according to the most recent data posted on the DOE website. It’s too early to say whether either school will open new classes to permit zoned children to enroll, or if class sizes will increase.

Because there were more applicants than seats available, the schools held a lottery and some families in the zone are waitlisted for both schools. The schools themselves maintain the lists, Jacob says, and families can call the schools to learn their place on the list.

Jacob says that much of the process is still incomplete — for example, gifted & talented test results go out late next week, with placement decisions anticipated in early June. “There are several schools in Manhattan and other boroughs that have wait lists for zoned students,” he said, noting that every year there are wait lists.

The DOE is gathering wait list information this month and will be looking at ways for schools to absorb as many zoned students as possible, Jacob said. Options could include increasing kindergarten class size, opening new classrooms (which could involve converting art studios or science labs to make room), and — as a last resort — capping a school’s enrollment and directing children to another school in the same zone.

A new report released today says that for the 160,000 students with special needs, educational options and services have not improved much during the past seven years of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein’s education reforms. Students in self-contained special education settings - classes comprised only of students with special needs - fare the worst, with only a 5 percent high-school graduation rate.  

 The report was released by the ARISE Coalition, an association of 33 different organizations and individuals devoted to New York’s children with special needs.  ARISE was founded by Advocates for Children of New York, Insideschools’ parent organization.

Since the Department of Education is considering reorganizing the special education bureaucracy for the third time since Mayor Bloomberg took control of the system, the specific recommendations for reform included in the report are especially timely. But also of great weigth are the stories along the margins - beside the statistics, recommendations, graphs and charts - of specific families who have struggled to gain the best education for their children. Read the full report - and the poignant stories - here.

Later today, Chancellor Joel Klein will speak at the Harlem Success Academy charter lottery. Harlem Success, founded by former City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, can’t ever be faulted for thinking small: The draw will be held tonight at the Harlem Armory Track at 5:30 pm, a facility that can host thousands, as it did at a giant school fair and  a charter school-sponsored inauguration celebration.

Demand for charters is on the rise, especially given strong support by our mayor, chancellor, president and national education secretary. But amid all the governmental enthusiasm, there are important signposts that the charter processes may not be working as well — or yielding the anticipated strong results — that their promoters celebrate.

One dense report that closely analyzes New York City charter-school data shows little daylight between traditional publics and the charter schools on reading and math scores, despite a school year that’s up to 40 days longer than the conventional academic calendar (abstract is here; there is a fee to read the full report). A broad-canvas analysis in the Wall Street Journal highlights some of the obstacles charters face nation-wide — including union opposition and dozens of states that simply do not permit charters within their borders. And a hyper-local report documents a geographic dilemma that has its thorny roots in school zoning: A child who lives in one district (which makes him charter-eligible) attends an elementary school that promotes its grads into another district (which makes him charter-ineligible). Similar tales of infuriating bureaucratic arcana and personal frustrations abound.

Charters are a signature element of school choice, promoters believe, and their continued expansion seems an imminent reality. But charters are no magic bullet for school ills — and in many venues, they seem to show small gains, despite hundreds of extra hours of instruction and the machinations required to register.

Last week one of my teachers raised a topic that brought up some difficult questions: He reminded us that if he knew a student was cutting him or herself, he was legally required to report them to a higher authority. He expressed his own contradicting feelings on this issue, which prompted an extremely emotional class conversation. In general, my classmates understood the reasoning behind the rule; school authorities have a responsibility to keep young people safe. But teachers are not necessarily trained in dealing with serious issues, like cutting, that may be life-threatening to the student and surely signal deeper troubles. However, many students were extremely opposed to the idea of being sent by a teacher to the guidance counselor against their will. Though there are wonderful exceptions, I have heard from students in many different schools that going to “their” guidance counselor is something they generally seek to avoid.

I think one of the biggest problems is that guidance counselors in many schools do not know their students on a personal level. Big schools and low budgets make it hard to get enough personal attention to every student. I believe in the idea of a small-group advisory period each week, led by counselors, who would have the chance to get to know students and build relationships over time, before a crisis. Additionally, individual meetings should be arranged at some point so every student can meet their guidance counselor.

I know there are some really great guidance counselors out there, and I respect their efforts and their important role in students’ lives. However, many schools need to find a way for counselors to become more involved with their students — not on a disciplinary level, but on a personal one — and really provide the ’safe space’ students need.

Since today is Earth Day, it seems a good time to mention that all New York City public schools are now members of the Green Schools Alliance, a national organization helping schools to cut their carbon footprints.

Last Saturday, more than 650 students gathered at a conference at the Collegiate School to trade strategies (there will be another one in the fall). City Council member Gale Brewer, who attended, said of the conference “it was huge!”

John Shea, Executive Director of the DOE’s Division of School Facilities, is working on benchmarking energy use — basically, taking baseline measurements — at the city’s public schools. So far, over 850 schools have been benchmarked. Green Schools Alliance will post information online so communities can see how much energy their school uses, and everyone–students, parents, custodians, administrators–can work on saving energy for their school.

What can you do to help your school go green? Make sure your school is using recycled paper, recycling the paper it uses, turning off lights and computers when they are not needed, and reviewing its energy audit. Encourage teachers and administrators to communicate with parents by email and on school listservs to conserve resources. My kid’s school is looking into switching from Styrofoam lunch trays to corn-fiber-based trays and using biodegradable garbage bags, even though they cost a bit more. Ask your principal. Ask other parents. See if your building’s custodian might report to the PTA on the school’s energy audit, and what savings can be found in your building. Want more ideas? See the Green Schools Alliance website.

On this Earth Day, and every day, it’s good to remember that no matter what our educational struggles may be, we all have to live on the same planet.

Gotham Schools is reporting that embattled PS 20 principal Sean Keaton has asked for a meeting, via the Times’ local blog, to hear parent concerns about his administration, citing coverage on Insideschools.org and in the Brooklyn Paper.

Demand for the school, and for other nearby public schools, has risen as the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill neighborhood has experienced an influx of young families (read: outspoken parents). But another piece of the puzzle deserves a mention: One of the two new citywide gifted and talented programs the Department of Education plans to open in September will be sited at PS 20 and fall under Principal Keaton’s leadership come September.

No details yet about the time or the place of the proposed meeting.

Jacob Mnookin stood on the edge of the boardwalk in Coney Island, greeting the families who had come to witness the inaugural lottery for Coney Island Prep, south Brooklyn’s first charter school. Mnookin, the founding principal, still wasn’t sure where he would be holding classes in the fall, so the admissions lottery was taking place in the education room at New York Aquarium, a boxy facility between the iconic Cyclone roller coaster and the beach. Families sat next to giant turtle shells, sea sponges, and mounted fish skeletons, waiting to see if their child’s name would be one of the first 81 names pulled out of a plastic bingo drum, ensuring a place at the new school.

Like all charter schools in New York that receive more applicants than places, Coney Island Prep is required to hold a random lottery, with preference giving to students from the district and siblings of admitted students, to determine who would be offered a seat in the inaugural 5th grade class. The lottery was held on Tuesday, April 7 – referred to as “super Tuesday” by charter operators, since 28 of the 99 charter schools in New York were holding lotteries that evening. (more…)

Q: Some of my friends are telling me that if I don’t have any community service on my resume, I won’t be able to get into a good college. I’m not against doing community service, but I just don’t see where I could fit it into my schedule. I have a heavy academic load, plus I’m very involved in performing arts (orchestra, jazz ensemble, drama) and with all the rehearsals, I have hardly any free time! Will not having community service on my record really hurt me?

A: This is a timely question! At a rally for civic service yesterday, Mayor Mike Bloomberg called on all New York City public schools to offer public service opportunities to students although he said he would not make it a requirement for graduation as some high schools do. The theory behind requiring community service is that young people ought to put in some effort to enhance their community, and some students find themselves becoming inspired by the service they do in the process of fulfilling this requirement. Others find it a chore and only do it because it’s mandated.

There is no requirement that community service be listed on a college application, just as there is no requirement for work experience or extra-curricular involvement. There is space for both to be listed, but it’s optional.

Some colleges have “service to others” as an important part of their own ethic. If you look at a college’s website and it points out, for example, that 90% of the student body is involved in community service, from working in a neighborhood soup kitchen to tutoring children in an after-school program to calling the bingo numbers at the senior citizens’ center, then it’s obvious that evidence of community service will be valued (and the lack of service will be noted). (more…)

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

Dear Judy,

I have a question about an incident in my daughter’s school. One of her classmates disposed of my daughter’s home keys and a cell phone in a garbage can. He admitted going through her book bag when she wasn’t around. The school officials had a meeting with his parents, and the boy said he is sorry. Nobody contacted me from the school. I found out what happened myself. I called the assistant principal this morning, and she told me that school is not responsible for lost items, and I can file a police report if I want to be reimbursed by the parents of that boy. Could you please tell me what should I do in this case? Is the school really not responsible for anything? What about safety?

Upset Parent

Dear Upset Parent,

Is the school responsible for the loss? Although there is a process, spelled out in Chancellor’s Regulation A-412, that the school must follow when a student is robbed on or near school property, including writing up an incident report and a range of punishments for the student who is responsible for the theft, there is no mention of the schools’ liability for the items stolen. The Department of Education’s Discipline Code, which you should have a copy of, also has a detailed list of possible infractions and punishments but does not mention a victim’s compensation or a school’s liability. You should also ask for a copy of your school’s specific safety plan to check if it includes any options for recourse.

Even if the school is responsible, going through a legal process will probably take more time and legal fees than the items are worth. You should still, however, file a police report. The police report and the school’s report of the theft, which is called an incident report, are important documentation in case you need to establish the need for a safety transfer.

If the school is not legally responsible for your daughter’s items, it is still responsible for handling the situation properly. They have already failed to notify you and show you the incident report, as the Chancellor’s Regulation requires. Now the principal or guidance counselor should set up a conference with the boy’s parents to discuss how you can be repaid. Depending on the age of the child, there might be an arrangement for him to earn the money, or the parents might agree to reimburse you. If the principal or his designee won’t help arrange this meeting, call the district family advocate and other Department of Education contacts, such as office of School and Youth Development, (718) 935-4357, or the Office of Legal Services, (212) 374-6888
I hope this resolves in a peaceful way.

Judy

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

The familiar honk of a fabled New York City mayor coursed across tens of thousands of telephone lines yesterday, as robocalls voiced by former Mayor Ed Koch reached out to parents to encourage them to vote in the straw-poll Ccommunity Education Council elections. Whether Hizzoner was pressed into service before or after the deadline was extended, from April 22 to April 29, isn’t clear. We’ve asked the group that organized the get-out-the-vote campaign, powertotheparents, about the telephone campaign and will report back with details on how much was spent — and how they got the telephone information for New York City public school parents.

But even with phone calls and extended deadlines, turnout at meetings has been painfully slim, as we reported two weeks ago and Beth Fertig reports on WNYC today, and actual votes to date, which the News‘ Merideth Kolodner cites as just under  12,000, represent a tiny sliver of the 750,000 households considered eligible to vote.

Update:  Grassroots Intiative organized the phone campaign for a total cost of $15,000, according to Power to the Parents, which added “DOE provided the call lists directly to the call vendor. The lists included all households with kids in NYC public schools. Grassroots Initiative was not given access to any parent information.”  (Except for the telephone numbers, that is.)  Over 700,000 calls were placed. 

Talking about ‘giving back’ is easy — yet too often, between the talking and the doing lies a deep gulf of good intentions. But volunteering doesn’t have to mean giving up a career or sacrificing your home life; New York City’s long-established school volunteer program, Learning Leaders, asks for a minimum commitment of only two hours a week (although if you have more time, there’s plenty of work to be done).

Learning Leaders brings adult volunteers into about 850 city schools, working with students, teachers, and administrators to improve instruction, explore the arts, build relationships with kids, and generally help schools run better. Although most volunteers work in grade schools — where 12,000 volunteers work with more than 200,000 students — there are opportunities to help out at every level. Right now, Learning Leaders is seeking tutors for high-schoolers prepping for spring Regents exams and for extra help in middle-school summer programs.

Volunteers don’t just drift in off the street: Formal applications include three professional references, and potential volunteers attend specific training sessions to work with elementary, middle, and high-school aged children. There are even opportunities for volunteers who sign — provided they can complete an interview via American Sign Language.

This week is Great School Volunteer Week in New York City; attend a Learning Leaders midday orientation session to learn more.

Our question about the Community Education Council vote drew an anemic response — in itself, perhaps a reflection on the Department of Education’s fledgling effort at online parent engagement. About half of the respondents said they planned to vote, but the next largest group said they flat-out wouldn’t, because they didn’t know enough about the CECs or about the process.

This week, we ask about an issue that affects every child in every school in the city: School safety officers, who are often the first faces students and parents see when they enter the school building. Uniformed safety officers are a fact of life in the city’s schools. Many find their presence controversial (to put it politely) and advocacy groups like the New York Civil Liberties Union have proposed the Student Safety Act, which seems, for the moment, to be stalled in the City Council.

What do you think of the uniformed officers that guard our school doorways? Take the poll - and as ever, share your comments here.

As regular readers may have noticed, our format’s changed to permit greater use of daily images.Now, we’re reaching out to city parents for pictures they love: Of their schools, their classes, their kids, and the amazing art projects and staggering science experiments those kids create. We’re also looking for kid-made photos, from grade-schoolers learning to point and shoot to big kids’ personal projects. Scanned art also works!

To that end, we’ve set up an Insideschools group on Flickr, and we cordially invite readers to join and submit their best pics and video clips. We’ll use some of the images on the site, with a new weekly feature showcasing photos of the week, and will of course happily credit contributors by name.

Here’s how to start: First, go to Flickr.com. If you’re not yet a member, please join — it requires a free Yahoo account and only takes a couple of minutes. Once you’ve joined, click on the “Groups” button at the top of the page. Search for “Insideschools,” join the group, and hey, presto! You’re in.

We look forward with curiosity and pleasure to seeing what our readers send in.

Urban shutterbugs, get busy –

“Brooks, I said it’s bedtime! Now go into your room right this second, do your yoga, take deep breaths and relax so that you can fall asleep! I said right now!”

Even as I said it, I knew it was too loud, too angry, and somewhat absurd, but I was racing down frustration street, a one-way thoroughfare with too few stop signs.

We’ve been working on Brooks’s ability to sleep independently since, well, since always — he has been scampering into our “big bed” pretty much ever since he could scamper. And even before that, before he was diagnosed, when we tried to “Ferberize” him in his crib, he brought us to our knees. Brooks apparently hadn’t read the part of the book that said if you let him cry it out, by the third or fourth night he’d learn to go to sleep by himself. When he was still screaming/crying after two hours on night number seven, we came to our senses and threw away the book.

Sleep issues have rarely topped our priority list. When Brooks was very young and coping with 25 to 30 hours of therapy a week, we were only too happy to provide a little extra support in the form of an overnight snuggle. And as he got older, bedtime stayed on the back burner because there was always something more important: he needed to learn how to talk and how to tolerate loud sounds and how to be in the same room with other kids. But we couldn’t completely ignore this nighttime problem because a third smaller person in bed (who is, in fact, getting bigger) was not a sustainable environment for a sustainable marriage. At some point, Brooks had to learn to sleep alone. (more…)

My brother and I are almost fluent in Spanish, which is our second language, largely because our parents both speak fluent Spanish and we have traveled to a lot of Spanish-speaking countries in our lives. Many native English speakers do not have the opportunity to travel and don’t have parents who speak a second language, so they rely on their schools to teach foreign language. That is unfortunate, because in my observation, it is very difficult to reach any real proficiency in a second language from our public school foreign-language curriculum.

As far as I can tell, learning to speak a foreign language is not a serious priority in New York City’s public schools. There is no expectation of fluency, or even mastery. Second language is not taught at all in many elementary schools. At my old middle school, M.S. 51, language classes covered the same things three years in a row. As former M.S. 51 student Abby Beatty said, “In eighth grade I was still learning “¿Quien cocina el taco? Mi mama cocina el taco.” ( Who cooks the taco? My mom cooks the taco.) Many high schools, including my own (LaGuardia), only require one year of language.

The idea that learning another language is not as valuable as doing math or studying history is a bad message to send to kids. Learning to speak another language is beyond valuable, it is essential in a city as diverse as New York, and in a world where students in other countries begin to learn English in grade school. New York leads the world in art, fashion and commerce; why can’t our schools lead the country in foreign language education?

[Editor’s Note: State and city graduation requirements mandate a single year of foreign language instruction in high school, no more.]

The Department of Education has earned a reputation for making under-the-radar announcements in school ’slack times’ — often, just as a vacation begins. In its recent announcement of a $ 2.5 million donation by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to two charter school networks, made on the first day of spring break, the first day of Passover and the day before Good Friday, the news of the philanthropists’ support for the charter networks barely made a ripple in the local press: None of the city’s three big dailies published stories on the donation, although Javier Hernandez posted a report on the Times‘ City Room blog — and the Post has run two education opinion pieces in the past few days (an anti-union editorial today and a vitriol-stoked, anti-Weingarten op-ed last week).

Broad has donated more than $ 30 million to school reform since 2002, including $ 5 million to Children First and $ 4 million to the Leadership Academy, which trains principals to become leaders in struggling schools. The current donation will be shared by Uncommon Schools ($ 1.5 million) and the Success Charter Network ($ 1 million), to fund expansion of both networks in the New York City area. At present, Uncommon Schools’ six Brooklyn schools serve 1000 students; they plan to grow 14 new schools over the next half-decade. The Success Charter Network, founded by former Council member, former Education Committee chair, and frequent UFT nemesis and media darling Eva Moskowitz, enrolls 1000 students in four Harlem schools, plans to increase its reach to 40 schools in the next 10 years.

Broad, who made the announcement at Harlem Success Academy 2 on Thursday, told the educators gathered to listen, “you are the very best in public education,” and celebrated the success of the two charter networks, over and above other charters and the public schools in general. (Classes were in session through Good Friday.)

Broad also encouraged the practice of offering charter schools rent-free space in public school buildings, the subject of a recent lawsuit (and DOE change of heart), an unresolved issue taken up in the City Council last week. The fact that dozens of charters slated to open in September still lack locations increases the real-estate pressure with every passing week.

The bigger question: Is charter-school development displacing investment in the city’s traditional public schools? Advocates and adversaries support and rebut both sides of the conversation — but one thing’s certain: It’s a question that’s not going away.

It’s Friday, and time for the Insideschools community poll. This past week, we asked about bullying in school, and the majority voice was clear — zero tolerance for any kind of bullying, actual or virtual, with strong consequences and required parent meetings for students involved in bullying. That’s one kind of parent involvement — the kind few parents ever desire.

This week, we’re curious about the Community Education Council straw poll vote. Response to the Department of Education’s initiative — and maiden cyber-efforts at recruiting potential candidates — has been less robust than the planners hoped. Has it inspired you to step up as a candidate, or to take the time to vote on the upcoming CEC nominees? Let us know if you’re in or you’re out. And let us know why, too, in your comments.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to our readers and their families — and happy vacation to the 1.1 million schoolchildren of New York City. (We hope their teachers and all who work with the city’s kids enjoy a good week off as well.)

As I watched Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live last Friday, I found myself talking back to the TV, which rather quickly escalated into yelling at the TV, and then yelling at my husband. This was admittedly an unfair progression, but when I hear things that I know are untrue, or involve huge omissions, I get a little upset.

Ms. McCarthy, whose son developed seizures at two and a half, started out by saying: “When I first had Evan diagnosed with autism, there wasn’t much of anything. I had to find out about biomedical treatment on the Internet after I typed in autism on Google and three years later, there’s three books and many thousands of children getting better because of biomedical treatment.” I can only assume that she was referring to her three books, conveniently omitting the many biomedical intervention books that I read well before she came onto the scene.

As per her website, “the ultimate goal of biomedical treatment is to remove environmental toxins from your child’s body and repair the damage that has been done.” Although our family dabbled in this approach: I blogged about our experience with the GFCF (gluten-free casein-free) diet and we tried various supplements through the years, we were never convinced that they played a major role in Brooks’s progress, and we ruled out many of them (like vitamin B shots and chelation) simply because we believed they were too untested and potentially harmful. I need to stop here and add that I know families who believe in these types of treatments fervently, and please understand that I am criticizing neither their decisions nor their beliefs — I am only stating that a biomedical approach was not right for my family. (more…)

When Community Education Councils (CEC) candidates walked into school cafeterias and auditoriums across the city this month to declare why parents should vote for them, they got a shocking reality — few parents showed up. During the past two weeks, public school parents were invited to meet the CEC candidates who would represent them as the parent voice within the Department of Education bureaucracy .“Who are we talking to? Nobody’s here,” said District 12 CEC Candidate Winifred Coulton, looking out at only five parents in a large school auditorium. This sentiment was echoed at a District 13 meeting in Brooklyn, attended by about 12 parents. “Are there any PTA presidents, secretaries, or treasurers here? They ain’t here. We don’t see any of them here. That’s a problem,” said the Rev. Robert Townsley. Only votes from PTA officers count toward electing a CEC member, however, this year, all public school parents can vote at an online straw poll, April 6-22, to advise their PTA officers on how to vote.

In 2002, when Mayor Mike Bloomberg took control of city schools, he abolished community school boards. One year later, he created the Community Education Councils to be the new parent voice. Critics say they have far less authority than the old school boards. “The word out there is that the CEC has no power,” said Carmen Taveras, a District 12 CEC member appointed by the Bronx Borough President. “They think, ‘for what? Why would I go out there [to a CEC meeting]?’”

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At a jam-packed and raucous meeting on Monday night, the Community Education Council of District 28 in central Queens passed a unanimous resolution recommending the immediate removal of Dr. John Murphy as principal of MS 8 in South Jamaica. The resolution came at the end of the monthly meeting, attended by upwards of 150 parents, teachers, and community members. They crowded into the makeshift basement auditorium of PS 182, which quickly became a standing-room-only venue. The CEC voted on the resolution minutes after Rev. Charles Norris read a litany of complaints against Murphy, ending each with a rousing declaration of  “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Although a recent incident thrust MS 8 into the media spotlight, the press (WCBS, Daily News, Queens Chronicle, and the New York Teacher) reports that there is a long history of abuse by Murphy at MS 8, as well as at other schools. CEC member Emily Ades spoke from the stage, saying she issued her own report in November 2008 after performing a walk-through of the middle school, which she likened to a detention center.

Ades, a former elementary school teacher in the district, said she received no response from the Department of Education about her report, which detailed a school where “there was no School Leadership Team, the principal made all decisions, there were numerous safety issues, and the children were on lockdown,” she said.

Martine Guerrier, Chief Family Engagement Officer from the DOE Office for Family Engagement and Advocacy (OFEA), came late to the meeting after notifying the CEC that she would not be attending, and sending two representatives in her stead. Her arrival was unexpected and was not met with a warm reception.

Both parents and CEC members said they had reached out to her office to no avail. Kenneth Williams, one of the CEC vice presidents, spoke of his dissatisfaction with OFEA after he sought their support following negative experiences with the principal of PS 30. “[The community has] been left out in the cold for two years. Not just MS 8. Not just PS 30. It’s the whole district,” he said.

Guerrier said, “A number of issues were raised to me today that have not been brought to me before.”

In a telephone conversation with Insideschools.org, Department of Education spokesperson Ann Forte said that there is an “ongoing investigation” of the principal.  “We don’t believe that his removal is warranted,” she said, noting that he “sent a letter home to parents a week ago trying to reach out and push to try to communicate better.” She said concerned parents should reach out to District 28 Superintendent Jeanette Reed. The superintendent’s office is ultimately responsible for the hiring of principals and for their dismissal.

Meanwhile, protestors gather each morning before MS 8 begins its school day. They hold signs and photos of Murphy and often cheer “get rid of the rat.” A rally will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Jamaica branch of the NAACP.

Yesterday, the City Council members called on state legislators to establish a process by which charter schools are sited in public school buildings. Charter schools, which receive public money but are not managed by the Department of Education, are not entitled to space rent-free in DOE buildings, but Chancellor Klein’s administration has tried to accommodate charters in public school buildings whenever possible. This spring, when the DOE announced that it was closing PS 194 in Harlem and replacing it with a charter, the controversy erupted, a lawsuit was filed, parents screamed at each other in a hearing, the DOE eventually backtracked, and then newspapers blamed the teachers’ union for “condemning” students to failing schools.

At City Hall yesterday, council members questioned many of the players involved (teachers union representatives, parent groups, charter school leaders, Department of Education officials), and introduced a resolution urging state legislators to give communities more of a voice in charter school sitings. DOE officials who testified did not think the resolution was necessary.

Eva Moskowitz, the founder and leader of the charter school network Harlem Success, testified before the committee, which she used to chair when she was a city council member. It was her fourth charter school that had been slated to replace P.S. 194, and her former colleagues on City Council held her responsible for any role she may have played in the ensuing controversy. See a video from the Moskowitz testimony on GothamSchools.

Meanwhile, many of the city charters have been holding their lotteries this week. The number of applicants to charters more than doubled this year to 39,200 from last year’s 18,672. Democracy Prep Charter School, which is also in Harlem, held its lottery last night to pick 100 students out of 1,500 who applied (making the odds “harder than Harvard’s” according to the school). Tonight, at least 27 more charters will hold their lotteries and thousands of families will show up to see if their child’s name is called.

Q:  My daughter was honored by being nominated to be a National Youth Leader.  Participating in the program is very expensive.  I would hate not to let her attend because I believe it can open doors that would really benefit her. I want the best for her, but I really can’t afford it.  Am I expecting too much from the program, such as future scholarship opportunities if this program is listed on her resume?  Or should I wait and invest that money in college?

A:  You are a kind and wise parent!  Both of your instincts are right on target!  You want the best for your daughter, including helping her to enhance her experience and her college-admission profile.  At the same time you are correctly wondering if a high-priced program is really going to provide a high-level benefit.

This is not to minimize the fact that someone obviously thought highly enough of your daughter to submit her name to the program’s organizers, who write to high school principals and guidance offices asking for nominations of top students.  So someone at your daughter’s school — an administrator, counselor, or teacher — felt that she would be an excellent candidate.  The qualities that inspired someone to nominate her may be those qualities that will also make her a great college applicant.  But the success of her college applications will not depend upon her possible participation in this particular program.

Programs such as the National Youth Leadership Forum and the Congressional Youth Leadership Council can also procure lists of names from the College Board;  if a student checks, for instance, interests in law or medicine on the SAT registration form, programs dealing with law and medicine can ask for targeted lists.  Also, students who have participated in the programs are asked to suggest the names of others they think would enjoy the experience.

Every spring students have come to me with ‘nomination’ letters they have received, along with glossy folders and colorful brochures.  The programs often have the words ‘National’ or ‘Leadership’ in them (and have logos using symbols such as the Capitol dome or am American eagle), and they feel flattered.  The opportunities outlined in the mailings — traveling to the nation’s capital, networking with officials from government agencies, meeting students from all over the country — are exciting.  But what’s the difference between an “honor” and an “opportunity”?  An honor should not have a price tag attached to it.  An opportunity might or might not have a price tag.  Unfortunately, the college-admissions frenzy that has developed over the last 20 years has also spawned a huge ‘opportunities’ industry.  While there are many worthy, stimulating programs out there, for the most part they are money-making enterprises.

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

Half of the teachers working in American classrooms today could retire over the next decade, according to a report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group based in Washington, DC.

Because many teachers today are near 50, and because the median age for teacher retirement is 56, the group predicts a steep falloff of teaching professionals as this generation of boomers heads into retirement.  Many principals are also boomer vintage and will retire  in the coming years.  (See their graphic on page 2 for a stark image of an aging profession.)

The report additionally cites declining demand for education, as the overall proportion of families with children continue to fall to new lows in the nation’s demographic mix.  What this fortells for New York City is uncertain — but steady teacher attrition might be compounded if a generation of teachers elects to exit the classroom.

April’s a busy season for New York City’s 78 charter schools, which currently serve 18,000 students. This coming school year, 24 new charters will open, and charter-school advocates tout high demand. Since most of the city’s charters receive more applications than they have seats, the law requires public lotteries to determine offers. April 7th is lottery day or “super Tuesday” for at least 27 city charters, and a stressful process for thousands of city families. Many parents feel that participating in the charter school lotteries is a high-stakes spin of the education wheel that could shape their child’s future. (See the list of schools holding lotteries tomorrow after the jump.)

Charters are “open to ALL students, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, income or location,” and are mandated to serve all students, regardless of disabilities, according to New York Charter Center VP for Communications Jeff Maclin. This means that students with special needs can’t be excluded from charter lotteries, although Maclin couldn’t say if or how schools review applications to be certain the students who apply can be served by their school’s resources — for example, can the needs of a student who uses a wheelchair or requires a special, self-contained class be met by an individual school. Charters don’t wholly reflect city norms, as far as high-need students: According to Department of Education statistics, charters enroll many fewer students who are English Language Learners (3.7 percent at charters, compared with 13 percent citywide) and fewer students with special needs (8 percent at charters, 14 percent citywide). (more…)

Dear Judy,

My son has been bullied and harassed in his school since day one (he is now in 7^th grade at a pretty good school). Everything came to a head when he was mocked on Facebook. I hear that they call this cyber-bullying. Besides the embarrassment felt by my son, this led to some physical assaults. No one at the school is taking this situation seriously, but it has made my son anxious and his grades are falling. What should I do?

Worried Mom

Dear Worried Mom,

Cyber-bullying is just as serious as the more familiar physical assaults and general harassment. Cyber-bullies, or bullies of any kind, should not be ignored and victims should not be left alone to tough it out. There are two paths to take when this kind of situation gets out of hand. Although dealing with your son’s distress is foremost, you have to confront the situation that caused it. Help your son by getting the guidance counselor involved with some one-on-one sessions to help your son cope. If necessary, and possible, try some outside therapy. Once the people responsible for the bullying are identified, the school counselor should also be working with them. It may be a good idea to have a meeting between you, the parents of the offenders, and appropriate school staff. But that depends on specific factors, so consult with the guidance counselor.

At the same time, with no delay, you should report the cyber-bullying and other incidents to the principal and to the local precinct. There is a new procedure, clarifying how to handle these incidents and it specifically includes cyber-bullying. All is spelled out in Chancellor’s Regulation, A-832 which, among other things, requires the principal to investigate and share with you a report of the outcome and steps to redress the behavior. Note that if you are not satisfied with the way the school is responding, you can contact the Department of School and Community Development. Don’t forget to report the cyber-bullying incident to Facebook as well.

Remember, you may have other allies among school parents, those who have had similar experiences, or PTA members in general. Consider inviting an anti-bullying expert to a school meeting. Other “official” allies are the parent coordinator, the District Family Advocate, and the Director of the Office of Family Engagement.

Another source of help, particularly when it comes to dealing with school culture and student behavior, is your school’s network leader from its school support organization. You can find your school’s network leader listed on the Department of Education website.

It takes a lot of work to undo the effects of bullying. Stick to it and good luck.

Judy

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

Parents who responded to our high-school choice poll have strong opinions on the matter: More than half say there aren’t enough good schools for students and families to choose from, with demand strongest for progressive, rigorous high schools.

About 20 percent of responders say the system only works well for kids who are lucky enough to have strong adult guidance. Over 15 percent would welcome a return to zoned schools (and less choice). Less than 10 percent of parents say the system works just fine as it’s now constructed — a sharp counterpoint to the Department of Education’s claim of 86 percent satisfied customers.

This week, we’re asking about schools’ role in addressing online bullying. Weigh in; we welcome your thoughts.

The Department of Education has decided to back down on its planned closing of three neighborhood schools and creation of charter zones without Community Education Council approval, the subject of a recent lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers and the New York Civil Liberties Union. (Details and analysis here.)

This is a great first step toward better DOE compliance with parent engagement laws in the future. But more than that, the DOE should be curious: why do so many parent leaders think that there are problems with how charters are sited? Might there be something legitimate to our concerns? Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out, by holding a public discussion (whether or not such a discussion is mandated by law)?

I look forward to seeing some signs that the DOE is prepared to be a better listener, because it’s not very efficient to play out our disagreements in court.

A friend of mine recently told me that she sent her son into swimming lessons without any mention to the teacher about his developmental delays. She is my new hero.

She is brave and brazen, and a little bit reckless, but in a good way. After all, what’s the worst thing that could happen? She could always mention it later if the need arises, but why not let her son deal with the world, including new swimming teachers, the way it is, without any “special” padding. If her son doesn’t respond to an instruction the first time, the teacher will likely repeat it, and the two of them can forge their relationship just like any other teacher and student, in or out of the pool.

For better or worse, I am generally a discloser. At first, it was out of necessity; Brooks’s severe language delays and anxiety in new situations prompted me to use every opportunity to smooth out his very rocky road. Not saying anything in those days would have been tantamount to child abuse.

These days, I do it partly out of habit, and partly because Brooks’s self-confidence is just beginning to emerge, and deep down, I know he’s the same extremely sensitive boy he’s always been. I want to give folks a heads-up that he might not hear an instruction the first time, because a new teacher might misinterpret his distractibility for misbehavior, and I know Brooks would sense this new adult’s disappointment in him. A dent in his self-esteem, even a small one, seems to me an unfair way to honor how hard he’s worked and how far he’s come.

Of course, the other side of that coin is that the world is out there, the world in which my husband and I want Brooks to fully participate, and this protective shield we build around him with our disclosures is not giving him the opportunity to begin to navigate it on his own.

Brooks loves the water and is overdue for swimming lessons. As exhilarated as I am by my adventurous special-ed parent friend and the chances she takes, my overly cautious nature tells me it’s too soon to dive in.

At some point, I can see myself standing by and watching Brooks sink or swim; that’s part of my job as a parent and has nothing to do with special needs. Maybe next week, next month, or next year. Just not yet.

The Post, the Times cityroom blog, and GothamSchools all highlight Comptroller (and mayoral hopeful) William Thompson’s testimony on outsized Department of Education budget overruns, which he outlined at a crowded, consistently adversarial City Council hearing yesterday afternoon. At issue, in addition to overspending, is the DOE’s position as an agency that’s neither bound by the local laws that govern other city agencies nor beholden to state governance: The current mayoral control law effectively sets the DOE outside both structures.

Also under close Council scrutiny were no-bid contracts, like a $170 million contract awarded because the contractor was already engaged, hired by private money — “the intertia was there,” according to DOE’s Chief Procurement Officer David Ross — and book-purchasing contracts that deny local minority- and women-owned businesses and reward multi-million-dollar Midwestern publishing giants Ingram and BookSource. (See this NY1 clip for more.)

No vote was taken at this initial hearing, but many Council members expressed a desire to bring the DOE to heel, under the contract and procurement rules that govern all other city agencies, as part of a possible revision of Mayoral Control.

While thousands of parents and students showed up at the supplementary round high school fair on Tuesday, many of the schools on the Department of Education list of available seats were not represented. We asked a few schools how many seats they actually have available. This is what they reported:

-The new, long-awaited Sunset Park High School has 25 seats left.

- The new, selective Cinema High School has only filled 15 out of their 80 seats. They will not hold another audition for applicants but will instead consider grades and test scores. The principal said they would look at applications with fresh eyes, so students who applied in the first round and didn’t get a seat at Cinema can apply again.

- The acclaimed Dual Language and Asian Studies High School has only 10 unfilled seats.

- Manhattan Business Academy has 58 seats left.

Some families at the fair were hopeful that they would get a good match in the second round, others remained very angry. Several families protested the process outside, refusing to enter the building.

A family from the Bronx said their son has good grades, but his middle school counselor “isn’t competent at all.” They described the process as “disappointing. It’s a public education- why all the rejection?”

Families have until Friday, April 3 to hand in new applications to their school’s guidance counselor. Those unhappy with the match they get in this round may appeal.