Your independent guide to NYC public schools

Back-to-school means back to blogging for our regular contributors. As students settle into classroom routines, we want to re-introduce you to the writers who bring their voices to the InsideSCOOP.

• Claiborne Williams Milde, a parent of two, came on board this summer as she prepared her five-year-old daughter "Night Owl" to step up to kindergarten at Brooklyn's PS 29. We look forward to hearing more about Night Owl and her preschool sister in Claiborne's "Kindergarten Corner."

• We got to know Donya Rhett, our "Bronx Mom," through her frequent comments on our blog posts. Donya  is a mother of two and will give us a peek inside schools from her unique perspective as a clinical psychologist at a school-based health center in Harlem.

• Jennifer Freeman began blogging in 2007 as our "Money Mom" to let readers know about fundraising opportunities for schools. Last year, she kept us in the loop as a member of the District 3 Community Education Council, and now she'll be keeping us "Clean and Green" as a member of a District 3 Green Schools Committee.

• Liz Willen, the assistant director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University, gave us a parent's perspective of the daunting high school admissions process last year. With her older son now settled at LaGuardia High School and her younger son in his second year of middle school, Liz will continue to cover the trials and tribulations of parenting a 'tween and a teen in her columns Middle School Muddle and High School Hustle.

• Our web developer Marni Goltsman begins her second year as a public school parent and Insideschools columnist. We eagerly await her insights as her son transitions from a small, self-contained classroom into a larger, integrated kindergarten class in PS 178's ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Nest program.

• Toni Bruno, a member of the NYC Student Union, is back for her senior year at LaGuardia High School. We're glad to have her  "Student Voice" again this year.

Staffers (Cristin, Dan, and Pamela) will continue to anchor our regular news coverage on the city's public schools, and please keep your questions coming to our experts Judy ("Ask Judy") and Jane ("Ask the College Counselor").

Looking at the results of last week's poll, we realize that we truly underestimated how much parents spend on school supplies! Seventy percent of 561 voters said they spend over $50 at the start of the year.

Thanks for voting and for sharing your money-saving tips! One parent said that she was surprised when she first encountered a supply list in kindergarten, but now that her child's in middle school, "it just seems like business as usual." A few of you said that that you don't get supply lists from teachers in a timely fashion, which makes it difficult to buy them before the stores run out.

Monday marks the second full week of school. We'd like to know if you are attending the first Parents Association (or Parent-Teacher Association) meeting of the year. Vote now, and comment below to let us know why or why not!

Voters were divided in our last poll about testing preschoolers for admissions to gifted and talented programs. One thing appeared to be clear, though: you're not happy with the status quo--only 2% of responses supported leaving the system as it is! We appreciate your feedback:

"Fed Up Mom" thinks G&T programs are a waste of money. According to her, G&T classes have substantially fewer students at her school. "My child would have benefited from a smaller class but couldn’t have it because they wasted a teacher on the G&T kids," she said.

Parent Alexandria Gecin agrees that all students need smaller classes and quality education -- not just those who do well on a test. She added, " G & T doesn’t test for high artistic ablility, musical ability, high maturity, great spatial skills or anything other than an ability to pass what is essentially a little kid’s IQ test."

One mom, however, shared that G&T classes were her son's ticket out of a bad local school. Many more of you shared your thoughts on our initial post about testing 4-year-olds. Thanks for joining the conversation!

Now as we head into the second week of classes, we're wondering how much of a dent new school supplies made in your family budget. The Daily News reported Wednesday that some parents are struggling to pay for back-to-school items in these tough economic times. How did your family fare? Vote now, and add your comments below!

While GothamSchools joined Chancellor Klein on his annual five-borough, back-to-school tour, The New York Times' City Room blog followed a few students as they embark on a new school year. We were particularly intrigued by the scene at PS 19 in Corona, Queens, where the Times said "confusion reigned."

Though the K-5 school enrolls nearly  2,000 students and some classes are housed in trailers, the line of families hoping to enroll their children "extended down the better part of the block." According to the post, the school is one of 27 that still had a kindergarten wait list in July.

What was the scene like at your  school this morning? Does your school still have students waiting to enroll? Let us know below.

Today Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez challenged Mayor Bloomberg's proclamation that the city will open 23 new school buildings, creating 13,000 new seats for students.

Gonzalez says that some of the buildings touted as "newly-constructed" were, in fact, only renovated. More shocking still is that three of the "new" facilities are actually just rentals -- two of which have staggering price tags attached. Over the next 20 years, a lease on the Bronx building set to house  Jonas Bronck Academy will set the city back $40 million -- on top of the $11.5 million already spent on renovations. For the new Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, the city will shell out $191 million for space in a Financial District office building.

The DOE says their designation of "new construction" can be applied to any school that's creating new seats, but Gonzalez doesn't believe the total of new seats created is accurate, either. He points to the case of two Bronx high schools, which are moving from temporary trailers into a renovated building, meaning "no actual new seats will result," as the trailers are being taken down.

Gonzalez's criticism comes on the heels of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's report that the DOE's Capital Plan uses flawed methodology to forecast enrollment in the city's schools. Stringer's third report on school overcrowding says that the Capital Plan predicts a decline in the school-age population, even though 50,000 new housing units will spring up across Manhattan in the coming years.

According to the report, the DOE's outside consultants estimate that Manhattan will have between 2,700 and 5,000 fewer elementary and middle school students by 2016. Those numbers conflict with the city's own Department of City Planning, which predicts an enrollment increase of over 8,000 students.Stringer fears the Capital Plan will leave the city with a shortfall of up to 13,000 seats. He demands that the DOE be held accountable for its "erroneous" projections, and proposes the DOE submit to oversight and input from other city agencies, including the offices of the borough presidents, city comptroller, public advocate, and the School Construction Authority. He also wants the DOE to revise its formula for calculating school overcrowding to include students in trailers and annexes in student enrollment totals, as well as "to account for the need to provide cluster space and reduce class size." The Daily News reports that the DOE said Stringer's math is wrong, not theirs. But with this spring's "Kindergarten Krisis" fresh on the minds of Manhattan parents, we bet they'll be counting on their borough president.

Before the city released the 2008-2009 school progress reports Wednesday, the New York Post braced us for shockingly high results. But after the release, the Post had to update its statistics -- quite a bit. A whopping 97% of the city's elementary and middle schools received As and Bs, even higher than the 85% first reported. Just 27 schools citywide received Cs, Ds, or Fs.

Chancellor Klein wants to clarify what the good grades mean, according to The New York Times. To be sure, he says, they do not indicate that schools are stellar. Rather, the grades indicate that schools met their "progress target." And the grading system mainly defines progress by how much student test scores improve from one year to the next.

But with state tests' soaring scores already under fire, should we put any stock in a grading system guided by those scores? We're not the first to ask that question.

Progress reports have sparked criticism since their 2007 debut. Last year's reports attracted a string of complaints, especially in light of a popular Brooklyn Heights school's failing grade.

And now, with Klein making a point to stress that a school acing its progress report does not indicate that it's an overall success, the report seems to defeat the purpose of using letter grades to let parents know the quality of their child's school -- particularly since most of the city's "persistently dangerous schools" received top marks, too.

And so, Klein continues to defend the system, principals are split on the merit of  progress reports, and critics clamor on.

Even the Department of Education seems conflicted. On Wednesday, when asked if the grading system, which gave nearly all schools top marks, was flawed, the Times quoted Klein saying, “If you’re asking whether I would rather see less A’s,” he said, “the answer is no.” But today the Times reports that the grading system will be readjusted for next year. According to DOE accountability chief Shael Polakow-Suransky, the city plans to "raise the bar" so that there will be a wider distribution of grades.

What do you think? Do you find the progress reports to be clear or counter-intuitive?

UPDATE 9/9: Diane Ravitch, well-known NYU education historian, calls progress reports "bogus"  in a Daily News op-ed today.

The New York Post reports astonishing news today: more than 85% of elementary and middle schools earned an A or B on 2009  school "progress reports," which are expected to be released today. Even more surprising is that only two schools received Fs.

Those stats have improved enormously in just two years, according to the Post. In 2007, only 61% of schools earned top marks and 35 schools received Fs. Many of the failing schools have since been closed or have new principals. (Learn more about the fate of failing schools in today's Daily News.)

This year's progress  reports  reflect the dramatic improvements in student scores on math and reading tests, which account for 85% of the overall letter grade. The Post anticipates that this news will incite more calls to raise the standards on the state exams.

Board of Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch has already demanded that tests become more defensible. According to the  Post, Tisch said   next year's exams "will be more comprehensible and less predictable than in prior years." New State Education Commissioner David Steiner declared yesterday that he, too, wants to improve state exams.

We'll post an update when the progress reports are  online; and let us  know if you would award your school the same grade as the city.

UPDATE 1:15 pm: GothamSchools posted a spreadsheet that lists the city's elementary and middle schools' new progress report grades (for the 2008-2009 school year) alongside their grades from the previous year. They also offer some initial observations gleaned from the data. Of particular interest, the three schools that the UFT and parent leaders sued to keep open all received As.

And the two failing schools? Harlem Link Charter School and Washington Heights Academy.

In today's Daily News, new State Commissioner of Education, David Steiner, says our schools just need some common sense. He thinks our system is fraught with poor practices that defy logic - ranging from placing novice teachers in the most challenging classrooms to failing to reward the most accomplished teachers.

Steiner says we need a carefully mapped-out curriculum (with input from parents!) to ensure that students move successfully from our schools into college and the workplace. He thinks teachers should be better prepared before they fly solo, and that we need improved supports for those already in the classroom. For Steiner, school administrators and school districts should provide the feedback and training tailored to teachers' needs.

And as for our state tests, which have attracted continued criticism, Steiner says that that logic dictates that we need to be sure they assess important knowledge and skills - fairly, accurately, and reliably. Steiner knows it's going to be an uphill battle to make changes, "but doing so is good, common sense: our children's future depends on it."

What do you think Steiner's top priority should be? Teacher quality? Better curriculum? Improved exams? Let us know below!

Most respondents to last week's poll said that ARIS is a helpful tool, and only a few felt that it's a waste of the city's money. Unfortunately, a large chunk of voters didn't even know what ARIS is. Thanks for your thoughtful comments!

On Wednesday, we highlighted criticism of the Department of Education's gifted and talented admissions process. The authors of "Nurture Shock," a new book that examines child rearing practices, argue that the city's system of awarding G&T seats "flouts science." Even though research shows that young children's test results are not indicative of future academic success, the city administers tests to preschoolers to determine G&T program eligibility for kindergarten (when the highest percentage of G&T are open).

We've received a ton of reader feedback about the G&T process -- on test prep, test results, placement, and more. With "Nurture Shock" expected to hit bookstores in September, we'd like to know if you think the system should be changed. Vote now and please add your thoughts below!

GothamSchools led us to a post on The New York Times Bits Blog about a partnership between two innovative websites that allows you to turn unused gift cards into donations for schools.

According to Plastic Jungle, which buys, sells and trades gift cards, the average American household has around $400 worth in unused cards. Plastic Jungle's users typically exchange cards for crash or a credit at Amazon.com, but now they have another option: allied with DonorsChoose.org, the site allows users to donate the face value of a gift card to schools in need.

Back in 2007, our blogger Jennifer Freeman introduced us to DonorsChoose, which offers public school teachers the opportunity to post their needs for classroom projects in the hopes of receiving funding. You can browse the project requests and donate to the cause of your choice -- and thanks to Plastic Jungle, not just with your credit card, but with your unused gift cards, too!