Your independent guide to NYC public schools

UPDATE November 3: The list of heavily damaged schools that will not open on Monday was reduced from 65 to 57, the DOE announced late Friday night when it posted the list on its website. Of the 184 schools that did not have power on Friday, six regained power, leaving 178 without electricity as of 9 pm Friday. That number is expected to be reduced throughout the weekend as power continues to be restored all over the city.

Students at the 57 affected schools will not attend classes on Monday, or Tuesday when all city schools are closed for Election Day. Instead, on Wednesday, they will attend school at temporary locations that have been assigned to them. In some cases,entire schools have been relocated to one replacement location; in others, they have been split up by grades.

Hardest hit were the Rockaways in Queens. In District 27, some 20 schools are being relocated. In District 21, Coney Island Brooklyn, more than a dozen schools are being relocated. Students from John Dewey High School, where damage is extensive, are being sent to three different locations: 9th and 10th graders to Sheepshead Bay High School, 11th graders to James Madison and 12th graders to Lafayette. Four schools in Staten Island will be holding classes elsewhere, and six in Manhattan, including Bard High School Early College, whose students will travel to Queens to attend classes at its sister school, Bard High School II. No schools in the Bronx will be closed.

The school closings may continue to change over the weekend. We'll post updates as we get them, and be sure to check the DOE'S website for announcements.

Friday's report: Sixty-five Fifty-seven of the city's 1,700 schools hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy will not open until Wednesday, Nov. 7, Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced on Friday afternoon. An additional 184  178 schools, many of them located in lower Manhattan, were still without power on Friday afternoon and it was not certain whether all would be able to open on Monday.

"We expect a sizable number to be powered up" by Monday, Walcott said, but noted that even if power returns, there may be more outages. The chancellor did not say which schools were seriously damaged, but Department of Education officials promised to post a list as soon as it is available.

Eight high schools will continue to house evacuees. Students will attend classes at these buildings, despite concerns about safety and hygiene at some of the evacuation sites. Ninety percent of schools will be open on Monday, Walcott said.

The DOE said it was possible some schools that move temporarily into other buildings will have a shorterned school day. That's what happened after September 11, when schools such as Stuyvesant, located near Ground Zero, moved to other school buildings for several weeks. Some saw their school day cut in half.

Claire Needell Hollander is an ELA enrichment teacher at a Manhattan middle school and the mother of three daughters, all public school students.

For those not directly affected by the damage wreaked by Sandy, boredom was the enemy over the past school-free week. Lucky were those households with a stockpile of good books, or access to a bookstore whose doors remained open. Alas, most of the books for teens at my local chain bookstore are dystopian novels and paranormal romances. Few and far between are the thought-provoking realistic young adult novels like "Kind of a Funny Story," by Ned Vizzini and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie.

While there is nothing wrong with spending leisure time reading fantasy books, they are mostly devoid of real world knowledge—unlike realistic novels, like "Sold," by Patricia McCormick, that may introduce students to other cultures.

Schools chancellor Dennis Walcott says schools will open on Monday, even though some are still damaged by Hurricane Sandy and others are housing people made homeless by the storm, Gotham Schools reports.

“There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it,” Walcott said. “They will open. We know they’ll open.”

Forty-four buildings housing 79 schools, including John Dewey High School in Brooklyn and Beach Channel high School in Queens, are considered "severely damaged" and will need extensive repairs before they are safe, Gotham Schools reports.

Students from damaged schools or from schools that still do not have electricity will be assigned to other buildings. The assignments are still to be determined. Other damaged schools include  P.S. 253, Mark Twain School, and P.S. 195 in Brooklyn, NY 1 reports.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced that he would consolidate 76 shelters currently housed in schools into eight buildings. Those buildings will continue to be used as shelters after classes begin. 

These eight will be Brooklyn Tech High School, FDR High School and John Jay High School in Brooklyn, Graphic Arts High School and George Washington High School in Manhattan, Hillcrest High School in Queens and Susan Wagner High School and Tottenville High School in Staten Island, NY 1 reports.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced public schools schools will remain closed Thursday and Friday. He asked teachers to report to work on Friday, but students will not report until Monday.

Some schools are still without power, and some are being used as shelters for people evacuated from flooded areas.

Late Friday afternoon, Chancellor Dennis Walcott cancelled the specialized high school admissions test for Sunday, Oct. 28, citing weather concerns with Hurricane Sandy and "uncertainty over travel conditions." Eighth-graders scheduled to take the test on Sunday now have an extra few weeks to wait before taking the exam, which determines entrance into one of eight highly competitive high schools.The new date for them is Nov. 18.

Saturday test-takers are not affected.

Here's the notice we got at 4:20 p.m.

CHANCELLOR WALCOTT ANNOUNCES THE

CANCELLATION OF THE SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL EXAM SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2012 

The test will be rescheduled for November 18

Due to the anticipated inclement weather brought on by Hurricane Sandy, we are cancelling the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 28. The test is rescheduled for Sunday, November 18.  The exam scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, October 27, will take place as planned.

Q: I am working on my college applications and I need two teacher recommendations. I don’t know what major I want to be, so how do I pick which subject teachers to ask? My best grades are in math, but I’m not really friendly with any of my math teachers. I really get along well with my junior year history teacher, but I only got an 88 in that class. What should I do?

A: The first thing you want to do is not wait too long to ask your teachers for letters! It is never a good idea to ask at the last minute. You must realize that your teachers are going to be very busy near application deadlines – most applications are due January 1, although early deadlines will come on Nov. 1 and Nov. 15. They may be able to write only a certain number, so ask soon.

Unless students are applying to engineering school, which require a letter from a math teacher, they can ask teachers from ANY academic subject. It is best to ask teachers from two different subjects, so the admissions readers will gain two different perspectives about you. And it’s best to ask teachers with whom you have a solid relationship. Therefore, it is preferable for you to have a letter from the history who likes you, than from a math teacher who barely knows you, even if you earned a 97 in that class.

Top-scoring, low-income 6th graders may be eligible for the Education Department's DREAM - Specialized High School Institute (SHSI), a nearly two-year-long course which prepares middle school students to take the specialized high school exam in 8th grade. The application process begins this month.

Eligible students should hear now from their principals about whether they qualify for the course beginning in January 2013. To be considered for the SHSI, students must meet income guidelines based on free lunch status, have scored at a Level 3 or 4 on 5th grade state reading and math exams and have at least 90 percent attendance in the 5th grade. The 22-month-long course includes after-school and Saturday classes which begin in the second semester of 6th grade and last until the date of the test, in October of 8th grade. There are summer sessions as well.

The Education Department sent a list of qualified students to public schools enrolled in the Universal School Meals (pdf) last week.  Principals must distribute income verification forms to eligible students, along with a letter to parents introducing the program. Other public schools will get a list of eligible 6th-graders in November.

The program takes place in 18 districts around the city and is free. All participants get a metrocard for travel to classes, meals and course materials. In areas where there are more applicants than spaces available, a lottery will be held.

The specialized high school exam has come under increasing scrutiny this fall, after the NAACP filed a complaint last month with the federal government charging that the test effectively discriminated against black and Hispanic students who are under-represented at the schools. A Times editorial today pointed out that many middle schools fail to prepare students adequately for material covered on the exam and that students who gain admission to specialized schools come from families who provide them with prep courses and tutors. Last spring, the DOE said it newly expanded the DREAM program to help bridge that gap.

See the DOE's DREAM webpage for details. For questions, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

(updated with new information, Oct. 17)

Wednesday, Oct. 10 Friday, Oct. 12 is the deadline for 8th and 9th graders to request a "ticket" to take the Specialized High School Admissions Test or audition for LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.  If you haven't done so yet, tell your guidance counselor that you want to take the exam for entrance to one of the eight exam high schools or to the ninth specialized high school, LaGuardia.

This weekend, Oct. 13-14, there will be a high school fair in every borough offering a chance to meet with students and staff from most high schools in each borough. The fairs run from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Bronx: Theodore Roosevelt High School

Brooklyn: Edward R. Murrow High School

Manhattan: Martin Luther King, Jr. High School

Queens: Francis Lewis High School

Staten Island: New Dorp High School

Before you go, check out our video, "Making the most of the high school fairs." And for more information, there are resources online from the information sessions at the September citywide fair.

(updated 10/11/2012 with new due date)

This weekend, Sept. 29 and 30, is the Department of Education's gigantic high school fair from 10 am to 3 pm at Brooklyn Technical High School. Prepare for a hectic day, where you will meet teachers, students and administrators and find out about their schools.

You can attend information sessions several times during the day, led by staff from the Education Department's enrollment office. This will be helpful especially if you're a newbie to the process (and it will give you a place to sit down and take a breather.)

The NAACP on Thursday will file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, charging that the exam-only admissions policy for New York City's eight specialized high schools is discriminatory against Black and Hispanic students, is not "educationally sound" and has not been proven to be a reliable predictor of student success at the elite schools. They call for "multiple measures" to be considered for entrance to specialized high schools.

Joined by the LatinoJustice PRLDEF and The Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College and other community organizations, the NAACP is challenging the long-standing New York state law which specifies that students are to be admitted to specialized schools on the basis of a single exam. The law gives the city's Department of Education the latitude to create more exam schools and, in the past decade the city added five smaller schools to its roster of specialized schools.

According to the NAACP, the city's Education Department has "never conducted a study to determine whether the test is a valid tool" and whether "there is any relationship between students' test results and learning standards" in those schools. Furthermore, the complaint says that other elite high schools and colleges around the country use "multiple measures" when considering applicants, such as grades, teacher recommendations and the demographics of the schools they attend.