A few weeks ago, my 5th-grade son “J” and I attended the first of two middle school fairs. Although we live in District 10 in the Bronx, my children attend elementary school in Manhattan’s District 4, which gives us twice as many middle schools through which to sift.

I entered the lunchroom hosting the District 4 fair with excitement, prepared with a mental list of “must visit” schools. As an admittedly-anxious mom and eyewitness to the things that can go wrong in middle schools, I have been researching schools on this site, and in the book NYC’s Best Public Middle Schools by Clara Hemphill and the Insideschools staff.

J had on his “I’m not talking to anyone” face and refused to ask questions at any of the tables. He asked again why he needed to be present. If it were up to him, he would rather spend the day at his beloved elementary school, Central Park East I. (more…)

On the first day of school this year, I delivered my son to his 5th-grade class (he quickly dismissed me with the words: “I got this”), and my daughter to her kindergarten class in her new school. She joined a group of five-year-olds with similar dazed and confused expressions.

I journeyed from my kids’ elementary school to the Harlem middle and high school campus where I work as a clinical psychologist in a school-based health center. I recognized the same dazed and confused expressions on many of the incoming 6th-graders’ faces. These former kings and queens of elementary school suddenly appeared quite young and uncertain, wandering through hallways also populated with college-bound high school seniors. As anxiety-provoking a transition as this may be for the tweens, my experience has been that it is even more so for parents. Year after year, a couple of loving and protective parents seek supportive therapy for their kids who seem to be having a hard time adjusting to middle school. Year after year, the majority of these students prove their resilience and work through the adjustment phase with minimal clinical support.

Beginning middle school is a significant and stressful transition for nearly all students. An important part of growing up is developing the skills to cope with such stressors. An additional issue for new middle school students is that, not only are they anxious about being in an unfamiliar school (as are the pre-K and kindergarten students), they are now also painfully aware that others may be evaluating them. In fact, adolescence is the time when our kids become convinced that everyone is watching and judging them because the world is their audience! (more…)

Dear Judy,

My son is entering 7th grade this fall. Should I be thinking about high school admissions already? What can I do to get prepared?

- Thinking Ahead Mom

Judy answers:

Dear Thinking Mom,

It’s never too soon for a middle school family to start thinking about high school. There are new choices every year as well as the popular tried-and-true schools to consider.

A smart move is to attend the high school admission process workshops that the Department of Education is holding for middle school families over the summer.The workshops are held Tuesday evenings at either Brooklyn Tech High School or Stuyvesant High School. The first session, an overview of options, is being held at Brooklyn Tech on June 30. The other sessions at Brooklyn Tech, on July 7 and 14, cover how to prepare for the specialized high school exam and how to prepare for auditions and portfolios for arts high schools. The sessions at Stuyvesant, starting on July 21 and going through August 11, will discuss large high schools, career and technical schools, new small schools, and charter schools.

You can also pick up a copy of the Directory of Public High Schools that the DOE publishes every year. It should be available at most middle schools and at the borough enrollment offices. The directory is getting fatter and fatter each year, and just browsing through the listings of more than 500 schools can be daunting. To help you narrow your search, check the Insideschools’ reviews in the Find a School section and purchase NYC’s Best Public High Schools by Clara Hemphill and the Insideschools staff.

Consider attending the citywide high school fair next October 3 and 4. At the fair, you and your son will have the opportunity to meet with representatives and often students from many high schools. It’s a hectic and crowded event, but it will help you to jumpstart your school search. Typically around February there are fairs to introduce new schools that will open the following September.

Whether or not you attend the DOE workshops, if your son plans to take the test or audition for one of the city’s nine specialized high schools you should get a copy of the Department of Education’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook. The handbook should be available at one of the borough enrollment offices or from your guidance counselor in the fall (although most school copies will be reserved for 8th graders.) The handbooks have a sample Specialized High School Achievement Test (SHSAT) so your 7th grader can find out what he’s up against. You can get reasonably inexpensive prep books at our bookstore. I’ve also heard about students getting together in study groups to use these prep books instead of investing in expensive tutoring courses; some middle schools hold free prep courses for 7th graders.

Bottom line: The high school application, although filed in 8th grade, shows 7th grade scores, making 7th grade a very important school year. So while you and your son take some time to attend high school fairs and open houses, don’t forget about homework and attendance! With some advance knowledge, and good grades, you’ll be ready to go through the process for real next year!

You’ve got the whole summer to enjoy. Try not to let admissions anxiety get in the way!

Judy

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

Dear Judy,

We just got the results of my daughter’s middle school choice process and ended up with a school we did not choose. Is there any way to appeal this placement? Could it be a mistake?

5th grade parent

Dear 5th grade parent:

You are not alone, we have heard from many parents with the same problem. Mistakes happen. We know a parent whose daughter was matched with a school she didn’t apply to out of her district, yet she was not “accepted” at any of the district schools she applied to. This was clearly an error. My advice? If you think this could be a mistake, check with your elementary school guidance counselor now; ask her to contact the school that “accepted” your daughter to see if her name is on their list. When in doubt, double check with the local enrollment office and finally, with the middle school enrollment office at Tweed, headed by Sandy Ferguson.

If it is not a mistake, but just bad luck, you have until June 10 to appeal the placement, according to Department of Education spokesperson Andy Jacob. This goes for schools in districts that have middle school choice. Ask your guidance counselor for an appeal form. She can review your daughter’s situation and help fill out the appeal application. You might have a guidance counselor who knows your child well enough to go to bat for her. She may know middle school guidance counselors; she may know which schools are still open to applicants. Jacob said that “Appeals are granted based on seat availability and the selection criteria of the schools listed on the application.” He cautioned that ” Submitting an appeal does not guarantee admittance to a specific school, or even that a new placement will be offered.” You’ll be notified about appeals decisions by the end of June, according to Jacob.

Also consider checking out the few new schools that are opening next fall – they may still have openings.

Be as patient as you can. Late in summer there will be special enrollment offices to deal with unsettled admissions problems, and often the schools do not have an accurate count of who is actually attending until September. If you have applied and been endorsed by the guidance counselor, you might get an open spot.

Meanwhile, another piece of advice: don’t deride the school to which your daughter has been assigned. Do look for bright spots and emphasize them. She might just end up there!

Judy

Correction: Previously we reported, as per Jimmy Bueschen of the Manhattan enrollment office, that children  could only appeal  to schools that they had already applied to. According to parents who have copies of the appeal form, and Andy Jacob of the DOE’s press office,  children can apply to any choice program or school to which they are eligible and whose admissions are handled by the Office of Student Enrollment. That includes schools to which a child may have previously applied and new middle schools opening in September. 

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

Families applying to middle school should have letters by now. Since the middle school admissions process varies widely by district, we are curious how smoothly it has gone across the city. A few of the preliminary reports we have heard have included bureaucratic mess-ups (inaccurate admissions letters, contradictory information from the Department of Education offices and individual schools, special education delays). While the DOE is no stranger to admissions-process-bungles, we are hoping these are isolated cases.

Have you gotten your letter yet?

We’re hearing from middle school parents who’ve had happy news from a Manhattan citywide gifted and talented school — but, as of Monday, hadn’t yet had word regarding district G&Ts in their Brooklyn neighborhood.

The deadline to accept offers at citywide gifted and talented middle schools is tomorrow, but the decision is impossible to make with incomplete information — without knowing the local options. (Attending the citywide in Manhattan would involve a commute of at least an hour each way for one family in this situation.) So the day before a critical deadline, families don’t have all the information they need to make informed choices for their children.

Whether or how the Department of Education plans to respond to their own notification delays isn’t yet known — but if you’re a prospective middle-school parent still waiting for G&T placement news from your district schools, please let us know.

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.

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…)

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.]

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

Bronx

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

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

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

Brooklyn

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

Manhattan

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

Queens

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

Staten Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A parent of a District 15 fifth-grader wrote us about middle-school tours, and the people who offer them.  While experiences vary from person to person, parent OR child, this parent’s observations about the human interactions that define a school’s first impressions seemed to resonate.  What’s your take on the “face people” who have enchanted (or alienated) you ?  Does your experience compare with this school-tour travelogue?  

As my daughter and I shopped for middle schools, I was repeatedly surprised by how little thought schools appear to invest in  their “face people” — the individuals who, on tours and interviews, function as ad hoc PR representatives of the school’s culture and philosophy. These encounters form powerful first impressions that can make or break a family’s decision about which schools make the top of a family’s list.

We fist visited a school that I  thought would be of no interest to us.  At the open house, we fell in love: The principal was great — warm, open, ready to nurture the creative best in every student. But at my daughter’s interview, the woman we met with was aggressive, intimidating, and negative, even gossiping about other students . Could we, too, become fodder for community tabloid conversation?  The interviewer’s manner undid the principal’s great impression; we decided not to apply.

At a second school, my emails and calls about a tour earned a short, curt response informing me that we could visit after my child had tested in and been accepted. No further inquiries were acknowledged. Why, I thought, would I send my child to a school that expresses such disdain for prospective students and their families? Another one off the list.

School number three was a ‘thumbs down’ from the moment the gruff, inarticulate tour guide began to speak. He turned out to be the school’s sole point person and was unhelpful and condescending at application time. That school was out, as well.

Of the four other schools we visited, most of the face people were warm, informative, and enthusiastic. The principals we met left us feeling excited and connected. These schools conveyed the focus of their communities while welcoming and engaging kids and parents. Obviously, it’s not easily done.

When we started out on these tours I thought  I’d be judging schools on their merits. But during the process, I realized how hard it is to separate the people we met from the schools they represent. Could I send my child to a school that generated enormous bad will? Could one lousy tour really sabotage a school’s good character?

Now that the applications are in, I see the outsize influence of the people we met along the way. I found it very difficult to guide my child to schools, even those with excellent academics, whose administration really turned us off. When will schools figure out that they, like the applicants, have to put their best face forward? Academic rigor is important, but feeling comfortable n the school community shapes a child’s experience, and her family’s perceptions as well. I can only hope that when it comes time for the high-school tours I’ve become a wiser shopper, and better able to see past the person who greets us at the schoolhouse door.

Editor’s Note:  Easy, it’s not — but sussing out middle-school choice isn’t impossible, either.   A bit of education helps; look here  for ideas and strategies.

Since city students and teachers enjoyed their first snow day in five years, the Department of Education pushed back the first day of the state math test for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, from Tuesday to Wednesday. Middle school students will remain on schedule, taking the test on March 10 and 11.

Today was supposed to be the final day for kindergarten applications, but because of the inclement weather, the deadline for parents to visit elementary schools and fill out an application has been extended to Friday, March 6. We can only hope that this extension won’t be a sign of delays to come.

The mayor offered some advice to students who are hoping for a second day off tomorrow: “things can always change,” he said, “but my suggestion is to do your homework.”

A few days ago, we weren’t alone in cheering the DOE for its plan to stream live video of the Obama inauguration to the city’s schools. Yesterday, though, hundreds of students at a number of schools, including elementary and middle schools in Brooklyn and Queens, didn’t get to see the 44th President take the Oath of Office. One school relied on the kindness of neighbors, while another switched to a small radio feed — not quite up to the challenge of an auditorium filled with excited middle-schoolers.

We know the video worked in many schools, but wonder if your child was able to view the Inauguration at school. If not, did you recap the events of the day at home? And what did your child’s school do instead of watch? We’re sure someone seized the moment for something creative and energetic.

Middle-school families across New York City now join the ranks of high-school applicants and their parents: The waiting game is in full flower, with everyone on tenterhooks, hoping for good news from their schools of choice. The deadline for middle school applications was this past Friday, January 9th, but for a few ultra-cool customers, the middle-school wait may be over far sooner.

That’s because ICE, the Institute for Collaborative Education, has borrowed a page from higher-ed, offering students who they describe on their website as exceptionally strong candidates a chance to apply — and be accepted — early, well ahead of the middle school admissions pack. Applications for Early Admission at ICE were due on January 5th; acceptance is granted on a rolling basis, which means that students can hear news, good or bad, within weeks of their application. Other students’ applications are reviewed only after the early-admissions batch is complete.

We’re curious to learn more about ICE’s admissions practices: How many students apply early? Of those who choose the early timeline, how many are accepted? Long-established as a progressive school with a personalized, unconventional culture, is ICE a pioneer, the tip of a new admissions wave? Even its regular admissions calendar is unique: Students can apply for a seat at the secondary, 6-12 school up to March 5, well beyond the DOE’s high-school and middle-school deadlines.

We also wonder how, logistically, ICE can offer both early admissions and an extended admissions calendar in a DOE-determined climate of centralized middle-school admissions. If you have answers — or more questions — let us know.

It looks like middle school report cards, which should be going home with students tomorrow, will be at least a day late — due to problems coordinating the new DOE ‘universal’ format with school data. According to one parent coordinator in Brooklyn, information entered by schools didn’t mesh with the new format — and school staff is spending extra hours writing report cards by hand, to go home on Friday, January 9th.

Let us know if your child’s report card is delayed, too; we’re hoping for comment soon from DOE.

A story in today’s Times heralded the season of middle school admissions mania, since - according to the newly standardized timeline - the application deadline has been moved up this year to Jan. 9. Parents in the thick of decision-making can search through the thousands of school profiles on Insideschools and find articles and blog posts outlining the process. If you want to talk to other parents also wading through applications, head to our discussion forums. To hear about one family’s experience with the process last year, read all of Liz Willen’s columns called Middle School Muddle. Good luck - there are a lot of excellent middle schools out there!

Last Thursday in District 3, the Department of Education and parents attempted haltingly to hold a conversation about what schools should replace the closing MS44 and PS241. I say “attempted” because parents mostly wanted to vent —about how small gains at those schools were not recognized, and about the challenges the schools faced, like the 35% population of PS 241 students who were both special needs kids and English Language Learners, mostly recent immigrants from Africa. DOE officials John White and Martine Guerrier wanted parents to limit their comments to what they valued about the old schools and what they hoped to see in a new school.

Regarding MS44, speakers emphasized a desire for diversity: the new school should be general ed, serving students from the entire academic spectrum. In fact, several parents expressed the opinion that education in the district overall might improve if all middle schools in the district took a portion of the lowest performing students.

For most of the meeting DOE officials declined to share their own vision of possible schools to replace PS241 and MS44, but by the end of the night, Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy head Martine Guerrier promised to bring to the next meeting a couple of examples of the kinds of schools that DOE thinks might fit in the community, as a basis for discussion.

I met the mother of a second grader at PS241 who was wondering how to get her daughter the best possible education in the face of a closing school. Who did she have to know? What tricks or special favors could be wrangled on her behalf?

Her daughter got top grades on her tests, the mom told me. Sounds like she would be an asset to any school, I said. You don’t need to ask for favors–let the schools you want her to attend know that you have a great student and your family wants to be part of their school community. No need to ask for favors—they should be honored to take her in.

The mom’s face lit up like the Christmas star. “No one ever told me such a positive way of looking at my goals,” she said. With an attitude like that and the will to be her child’s advocate, she was already more than halfway there.

Beginning this evening and continuing through the week, DOE representatives will host Middle School Choice Information Sessions, to help parents and students manage the middle school application process.

Workshops are brief, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm; click here for information on middle schools in your borough and have your questions ready. (For a firsthand view, take a look at Liz Willen’s Middle School Muddle, which chronicles her younger son’s search last year for a Manhattan middle school.)

The DOE’s repeating the ‘hybrid’ middle-school admissions process it piloted last year — applications and calendars centralized by DOE but individual schools, programs, and districts setting entrance criteria and making actual admissions decisions and offers — and middle-school fairs commence this week, across the city’s school districts.

Unlike high school fairs, which are offered city- and borough-wide on different dates, each school district has one date for its middle school fair, which takes place in the early evening, generally from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. And again unlike high school admissions, where students and families received handbooks months ahead of the fairs, elementary-school students and their parents will get middle-school directories after the fairs conclude, in mid-December. Information sessions explaining middle-school choice are planned for late December, but you can get a jump on the process here.

Tours and auditions are taking place now — adding an extra layer of complication for families unaware of all of their district’s middle school offerings — and completed applications are due to elementary-school guidance counselors a week after kids go back to school in January, on the 9th.

Admissions decisions will be announced “in early May,” according to the DOE. So while the process is more compressed than the high-school equivalent, it still involves plenty of waiting.

Liz Willen writes High School Hustle, about the high school admissions process, but her younger son has joined his brother in middle school, thus, this post.

One day, I will be a recovering middle school parent. In the meantime, I find myself either losing my temper or shaking my head and laughing at the various mishaps that accompany middle-school independence.

In my household, it began last week with the eighth-grader’s wallet — lost, lost! — along with the MetroCard and cash inside.

Recovered later under a chair.

Later in the week, a language-arts notebook crisis: an entry worked on for hours the night before gone, gone! A mad scramble, shouting, searching. The notebook turns up several hours later (too late for the morning commute), mistakenly placed inside another backpack. The sixth-grader is late for school.

All is well for at least a day, until mysteriously the eighth-grader’s wallet disappears — again! “I think I was pickpocketed,” he explains earnestly.

We talk about being more careful on the subway. He prepares to ask his school for another MetroCard when the call comes in: “We found your son’s wallet with MetroCard and cash inside on the floor,” a school aide says.

A friend’s seventh-grader keeps coming home with absolutely everything in his backpack. When she wondered why he couldn’t put anything away, he pointed out that he can no longer use his locker. Why? Because the food he left inside it a week earlier inspired a roach invasion, and he can’t bear to open it up.

Another friend says her child brings home nothing but a few scraps of paper. What about the planner? What planner?

As parents, we can simply stop bugging them and let our middle schoolers rise and fall on their own. Instead, most of us are once again making lists and begging our children to check them off and remember what they need — and don’t need — every day.

Talk of testing dominated the news this week. Whether it was the mayor’s new plan to test kindergarten, first, and second grade students or the results of the SAT exam, the testing debates continued to take up ink. New York students’ comparatively poor performance on the SAT prompted both the Post and the Sun to question the validity of rising state test results. NPR had a different angle on the story - they featured a public school that churned out students with perfect SAT scores. Some New York teachers, meanwhile, are about to benefit from the higher state test scores when they receive their first bonuses, and certain teachers are going to be paid more than others.

While many kindergarteners in New York will start taking tests, the Times reports that the decade-old promise of universal pre-k is far from being realized. Education may be falling off the docket in general, warns the head of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Our chancellor, however, is keeping education in the local news, and this week, he talked to some budding young reporters.

Once-anonymous education blogger Eduwonkette unveiled herself dramatically, via a profile in New York Magazine. But a whole different kind of concealment is happening in a small Texas town, where teachers came to school this year with concealed guns. And the whistle-blowing Post exposed illegal activity and ethics violations all over the school system .

Low performing middle schools will get another burst of attention and funds after last year’s influx of cash seemed to boost test scores in the most of the targeted schools. Cash has also been spent on 18 new school buildings opening next week, although the Mayor says he’s lowered construction costs. And 10 city elementary schools are going to try out the Core Knowledge literacy curriculum - a content-based program that represents a departure from Bloomberg’s Balanced Literacy program.

It’s Friday, which, according to way too many city students, is apparently the day of the week to play hooky! Most of the little truants probably don’t have parents who are as on-top of their education as these parents claim to be. Involved parents or not, every student could benefit from a better physical education program, read more the Riverdale Press.

Enjoy the long weekend and don’t forget to pack backpacks and sharpen pencils, it’s almost school time.

The good news, from the DOE and the State, is that crime in the city’s schools is on the wane: Of 25 city schools described as persistently dangerous by the State last year, 15 were removed from the list in light of improved safety and lower crime. The downside is that 11 city schools remain on the danger list. New York City also added more schools (six) to the state’s list than any other area of the state.

In counterpoint, Comptroller William Thomson asserts that as many as one in five violent/criminal/safety incidents that occur in schools go improperly or incompletely reported. City leaders hope that a proposed amendment to the City Charter will improve school security by directing complaints of police misconduct to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (not the current norm) and requiring regular reporting on school violence to the DOE and NYPD.

In an article today, the Post documents a number of District 75 schools on the state’s list — D 75 schools enroll special need students with the most acute needs. Reports of persistent violence in D 75 schools, where staff ratios are far smaller than mainstream schools, raise difficult questions on all sides. And an AP story from am New York sets New York’s improvements against a national canvas, noting without irony that the other 49 states document a total of 21 persistently dangerous schools compared to New York State’s 19 (although reporting criteria vary from state to state).

Notably, despite pop-media visions of metal-detectors and box-cutter-wielding teens, “persistently dangerous” schools include elementary and middle schools, too. Under the provisions of NCLB, parents can request safety transfers for students enrolled at “dangerous” schools. But time is short before the start of school; those interested in seeking transfers should contact their school this week to explore the process.

Families in downtown Brooklyn have long lobbied DOE for new middle schools, especially as local elementaries revive (pace, PS 8’s new expansion plans) and the waterfront neighborhoods host new (and massive) housing developments. Now, the Daily News reports there’s more support for a new middle school in DUMBO, 45,000 square feet of spanking-new classroom space in a much-criticized project by the Walentas family Two Trees company, headed up by heir apparent, 33-year-old Jed Walentas. Even Schools Construction Authority president Sharon Greenberger has thrown her support behind the Dock St. tower middle school — and it’s safe to bet, the DOE approved her endorsement.

Walentas pere has been steadily, stealthily buying up waterfront and DUMBO parcels for the last two decades, with not a lot of love lost between him and local residents. Cynics wonder, in the quid-pro-quo world of real estate development, what the net gain is for his Dock St. tower, above and beyond the potential benefit to the community.

District 2, which encompasses some of Manhattan’s prime development turf, has chronically overcrowded elementary schools. Middle schools, often housed on the top floors of primary schools, add to the population pressure.

In a long letter to the Community Education Council, the DOE proposed short- and long-term responses to grade-school crowding — including moving fifth-graders at jammed schools to less-populous schools two miles uptown, strictly limiting zoning variances, shifting classes to underused space at local middle and elementary schools, as well as plans to add thousands of new school seats and (possible) zoning changes. Safe to say, the issue won’t be resolved in the next month, before school begins. For schools like PS 234, which is at 150% utilization, or PS 59, at 192%, close quarters doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Local parents and school advocates want the DOE to consider another short-term option not outlined in their D 2 ‘blueprint,’ which focuses on grade school crowding. A state-owned building at 75 Morton St., in the thick of the overcrowded zone, is on the auction block. Parents, teachers, principals, and local pols want the DOE to acquire the building for a new public middle school. (It’s fully ADA accessible, to boot.)

Today at 5:30pm, parents and activists will rally in front of 75 Morton. We hope the DOE’s School Construction Authority and Office of Portfolio Development are paying attention.

Four weeks from today, the city schools open for the new academic year. As impossible as it seems, it’s time to get ready for school.

Above and beyond the basics — lunchboxes, binders, glue-sticks, loose-leaf — NYC students, especially kids in middle and high school, often have to navigate the city’s transportation system to get to school and home again. Late summer is a perfect time to practice.

With your child, figure out the best way to get to school. (Have a look at subway and bus routes, and check here for commuting advice.) Some kids travel solo, others prefer going with a group. Informal commuting ‘clubs’ exist at some schools; contact your parent coordinator, who may be able to connect you nearby families.

Don’t just talk the talk; walk it (or ride it), and often. Take the trip to and from school with your child. Look for landmarks at transfer points, then (deep breath now) stay back and send them on their way, with a cell-phone for directions or for that most welcome ’safe and sound’ call. (Be sure to ask about your child’s school’s cell-phone policy during the year; many permit phones, provided they’re turned off during class hours.)

As hard as it can be to watch your child trundle down the subway steps alone, it’s a big first step toward discovering the city — and toward independence, too. It’s a big world out there; you can make moving through it easier for your child, with a little practice.

by Liz Willen

There’s no way of getting around the constant search for schools in New York City — from getting into pre-kindergarten (far more complicated than necessary this year) to finding a good neighborhood school to choosing a district with enough reasonable middle school choices to mitigate the nagging “what’s next?” anxiety that accompanies raising kids here.

But pluses like diversity, excitement, culture, and the thrill of outdoor movies, music and river-art waterfalls, all within easy commuting distance, become meaningless for parents who do not believe their children can obtain a first-rate education in the New York City public school system. That’s why word-of-mouth makes the best schools instantly popular, and why landlords hold enormous power in neighborhoods graced with good schools.

New York City living is a series of trade-offs. You give up on the idea of a backyard in favor of a public park or playground, convince your children that all siblings share their bedrooms (or sleep in rooms that resemble monastery cells), forgo owning a car or move it constantly — and pay those pesky parking tickets when you forget. It’s all a lot easier to take if you feel good about the schools.

All of this became even more sharply apparent to me recently when a West Coast colleague without New York City know-how or connections who was moving here in a big hurry wanted help and advice. She wanted the basics, which can feel impossible: a decent apartment near a good neighborhood public school that would welcome her children as newcomers.

She figured she could accomplish this in one weekend.

I turned her onto to Insideschools.org and gave her a list of some of the most well known and loved schools near hew new job in lower Manhattan — PS 150, PS 234 and PS 89. A quick look at listings made it clear that a two-bedroom in these areas would cost at least $5,600, so lower Manhattan was quickly ruled out.

Then it was on to Brooklyn, where principals and parent coordinators were warm and welcoming — and some landlords asked for as many as five months’ rent as security, in advance. Prices were still killer — a fifth-floor walk-up “bargain” was nearly $3,000 a month. The second ‘bedroom’ owed its existence to a door on a walk-in closet.

The apartment could not be instantly discounted, though, as it had the huge advantage of being zoned for PS 321, long established as one of the city’s best.

Such high prices forced my colleague toward a wider search and scrutiny of other, less-commuting-convenient neighborhoods, with schools that were less well known, but equally loved by hard-working parents and staff.

For a renter in a hurry, it’s turning out to be a lot more homework. She’s coming back, but convinced she’ll have to look at the high cost of renting near the schools she wants as “tuition.”

That’s life in New York City.

Yesterday, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and a glittering lineup of civic and state luminaries traipsed over to Brooklyn Heights’ rejuvenated elementary school, PS 8, to announce the construction of a new school annex, to be completed in 2011. Overcrowding has been a worry during the school’s resurgence, although the most recent data available show the school isn’t bursting at the seams — yet. The school has grown from 62% capacity in 2004 to 85% in 2006.

The school’s welcome revival has been the driving force behind increasing demand for seats; Chancellor Klein, quoted on WNYC, said that the new construction shows that the DOE is responsive to neighborhoods, not districts. (We’d like to see him try that logic with parents of high-school students who no longer have zoned, neighborhood high schools to attend.)

The Heights, long one of Brooklyn’s best-heeled bedroom communities, proved quite the draw on a sultry summer afternoon. According to the DOE, “Chancellor Klein was joined by Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, Chief Family Engagement Officer Martine Guerrier, S[chool] C[onstruction] A[uthority] President Sharon Greenberger, Department of City Planning Director Purnima Kapur, PS 8 Principal Seth Phillips, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman David Yassky, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, State Senator Martin Connor, PTA co-President Tim Eldridge, Superintendent James Machen, PS 8 Assistant Principal Robert Mikos, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe Chan, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Deputy Director Nancy Webster, and Community Education Council representatives for School District 13.” Whew.

Nearly everyone took a turn at the mic: Klein, Walcott, Grimm, Greenberger, Guerrier, Phillips, Eldridge, Millman, Yassky, and Markowitz all contributed remarks.

Unfortunately, the building boomlet in Brooklyn Heights doesn’t include the development of new middle schools. Klein has stated that middle schools are his priority for the balance of the Mayor’s term; as summer melts into fall, the time is growing short to prove it.

Kids and sex are a combustible mix: Ask any parent — or middle-school dean who’s had to break up a clinch in a hall sweep. But kids’ sexuality is real, and complicated.

This week, Newsweek explores the human cost of coming out at a school in Oxnard, CA. Across the country, kids are self-identifying as gay years earlier than they did a generation ago. We can debate whether a hyper-sexualized culture hurries these declarations, or whether someone as young as 12 can be certain of their sexuality — but the personal risk that’s involved is beyond doubt: Kids who out themselves face ostracism, bullying, and worse.

Lots of NYC high schools have LGBT clubs, for gay, straight, and questioning kids, and one small, transfer high school offers safe haven to non-hetero high-schoolers. But what of middle school? Could what happened in Oxnard happen here?

Students without placements or unhappy with school assignments in Brooklyn can attend the DOE’s new school fair today at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall from 4-7 p.m. New middle and high schools with open seats in Brooklyn will attend the fair; students can apply on the spot.

Although students citywide are invited to attend, today’s fair is only for Brooklyn schools. A similar new school fair will take place in Queens later in the month.

After all the middle-school admissions brouhaha, disturbing reporting on students who can’t get out of the middle grades was released today by the Out of School Youth Coalition, a network of social service and advocacy groups. Some of these ‘overage’ middle-schoolers are 16 or 17 years old — in the seventh or eighth grade.

The DOE, in its wisdom, does not make data publicly available to discern citywide how many older teens are still stuck in middle school. In one survey of nine Bronx middle schools, more than a quarter of the 6,000 students were older than they should be for their grade — due to repeated retentions, disruptions in foster care, and complications in safety transfers, among other factors.

Since 2005, the DOE has developed alternative programs for older, underachieving high school students via its Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. But comparable program options for younger students who’ve fallen behind are sorely lacking. It’s hard to imagine the daily difficulty and frustration of being 17 in a sea of 13-year-olds; could we make it any harder for these struggling kids?

Mayor Bloomberg announced the results of the 2008 Learning Environment Survey this morning; not surprisingly, there’s good news and bad news.

This second year of the survey generated a significantly larger response, especially at schools that scored poorly last year (targets of DOE response-generating efforts). Overall, parents report high levels of satisfaction with their childrens’ education and teachers; teachers who responded say they’re more satisfied, too, but some areas, like professional development, still fall short.

Of great interest to us is the student survey, which shows a kid-typical mix of answers. (Middle and high-schoolers were invited to participate; between 11% and 15% actually did.)

Learning environment, for kids, means the life of the hallway and the schoolyard–what’s said too loud in the cafeteria and who bumps who in gym. Bullying, fighting, and adults who yell continue to be problems, kids say. About half feel they can’t turn to adults at school for help; more than half say that students don’t “help and care about each other” or “treat each other with respect.”

Four in ten students report that their schools don’t have enough variety, in classes and activities, to keep them engaged. And it’s still really hard to be smart and cool: Almost half of the students the DOE heard from say that kids who earn high grades at their school don’t get other students’ respect.

Bottom line: The grown-ups seem happier than they did last year. The kids — well, they’re still struggling. They want more challenge, and they need more support.

The DOE plans to post citywide survey results and reports for individual schools this afternoon; we’ll update this post with a link when they do. (Learning Environment Surveys and attendance account for 15% of each school’s annual progress report.)

We’re hoping to take advantage of summer to ask the DOE questions about some things that confused many readers this year, both to understand what happened and explore what’s on deck for 2008-09.

We want to know about middle-school admissions – the calendar, the process, and how special-needs students can better be included. We want to know about gifted + talented programs — admissions, lotteries, citywide schools, and qualifying tests. And we want to know how the DOE aims to prevent the pre-K admissions confusion that characterized this year’s experience. We also have questions about centralization and how much decision-making power rests with the districts, for both K and middle school.

What do you want to know? Now’s the time to write our wish list; with weeks to go before the pre-September ramp-up, we can try to get some answers. Let us hear from you.

Ten Harlem middle schools will get new math and science programs this fall, thanks to a $17.9 million, five-year grant from the General Electric Foundation, announced just this afternoon by a sun-drenched Mayor Bloomberg, flanked by CEO of GE Jeffrey Immelt, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and Harlem’s own Charlie Rangel, House Ways and Means Committee Chair and undisputed king of 125th Street.

The largest corporate grant ever awarded to city schools, the DOE money is the lion’s share of a $29-million package that directs GE funds to Teachers College, Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Childrens’ Zone, the Council for Opportunities in Education and College for Every Student, in that corporation’s ongoing effort to develop math, science and engineering talent. Klein said that participating public schools have yet to be identified, although a Teacher’s College press-release named PS 200 and PS/IS 180 as part of the program.

We don’t yet know how the money will be spent or the programs administered, but Klein did mention that a portion of the grant might be used to “reconfigure” middle schools (translation: break them up and make them smaller). The mayor and the chancellor have reminded us often over the past week that middle schools remain their biggest challenge for reform, and they heralded this latest cash flow as a boost to their invigorated efforts. We’re curious, however, why other parts of the city, with similarly acute needs for strong math and science education, aren’t part of the powerhouse’s largesse.

It was the last week of school, and the big story was the generally higher test scores, although the controversy continues over what the scores actually mean. Chancellor Klein was riding high on the test results, although the teachers slammed his performance in a UFT survey. New Orleans superintendent Paul Vallas, said to be short-listed for an eventual successor, says that New York students might say bye-bye to future summer vacations. Large middle schools are the first in line on the chopping block, however, as Klein suggests that he plans to slice and dice them into smaller schools (reported first here, on our blog). Maybe smaller schools will tone down the 8^th grade graduation frenzy. At best, they’ll avoid serious issues, like apparent negligence in one Brooklyn junior high school.

Another study confirms what what we already know: there is a woeful lack of playgrounds at New York elementary schools. Let’s hope the new grade school in midtown includes outdoor play space.

The Times ended the school year with a summer storm of local and national school stories: career programs seem to work; a segregated retention program is, unsurprisingly, controversial; a NYC Harbor-based high school builds confidence (see their profile for more); an immigrant parent program boosts involvement; and rent assistance keeps helps families in one place, and kids from switching schools. Whew.

The Times also cautions: summer means bad nutrition. Keep healthy and cool!

For me, the clearest indication that my son’s childhood as he knew it was a thing of the past started with the cupcakes.

At a middle school orientation two years ago, I was the ridiculously out-of-touch mother who raised my hand in a crowded gym and innocently asked if it was still okay to bring cupcakes to celebrate a birthday in sixth-grade.

The crowd laughed. The principal rolled his eyes. I blushed and learned an important lesson about this next stage of life, which I’ve dubbed The Age of Embarrassment. It’s time for parents to back off.

Parents are all over the best elementary schools, organizing fund-drives and bake sales and penny drives, going on field trips, and yes — carrying in those giant tupperware boxes filled with cupcakes.

Not so in middle school. Two years ago, I took my sixth grader on the first day. On the second day, I walked a few blocks behind. (Could anything be worse than being seen with an actual parent?) and after that, he traveled mostly with his friends or alone. Now, if I want to stop by the school, I can’t take the same entrance.

Birthdays? Forget it. He doesn’t want anyone to know.

Not all middle schoolers become this self-conscious, of course, and none of this means middle schools don’t need support from parents — they do, more than ever! My best advice to soon-to-be middle school parents is to ask other parents how they handled the transition — and find out from the principal, parent coordinator and the PTA what’s most needed. Trust me, there is plenty to do.

Today, we said goodbye to my younger son’s elementary school, to teachers, parents and staff we knew for so many years they felt like family. There were hugs, tears and presents and then it was over.

It’s almost time to pack up all the stuffed animals and Dr. Seuss books too, reminders of the elusive and transitory nature of childhood. But first, though, I’m going to bake a batch of cupcakes. They may not be for a class party, but they’ll still fill the kitchen with the smell of childhood.

Scores for city schools have posted on the DOE website.

Look here for math scores; here for ELA.

We’re looking closely, too, and eager to hear what you think: surprised by the gains? skeptical or grateful? is test prep an issue in your child’s school? what’s your take?

Let us hear from you.

by Liz Willen

After two middle school searches in three years, I wish I could pretend to be the seasoned pro, generous with wisdom, advice and pitfalls to avoid. But even though we did our homework carefully, visited lots of schools in District 2, and listened to the words of teachers, guidance counselors and district officials, we discovered that the middle school admissions process did not work well this year. Confusion and misinformation triumphed.

Part of it is a supply and demand problem, of course. There simply aren’t enough good public middle schools in New York City, and as more parents choose to raise their children here and want to support public education, something has to change — quickly. Demand for the best public elementary schools is on the rise, leading inevitably to crowding and more competition. So clearly, there is a need to improve the city’s middle schools.

For the record, my complaints are not directed at the personal situation my family finds ourselves in. My now seventh-grader two years ago chose the Clinton School for Artists and Writers, where the language arts program has been absolutely outstanding. The teachers, principal and parent coordinators are warm, welcoming and approachable. Truth is, there should be more schools like Clinton everywhere. And more like Lab, Salk, MAT and East Side Middle School, to name a few of the terrific schools we’ve toured, some of them twice.

Two years ago, our middle-school search went well. We gave lots of schools careful consideration before ranking Clinton first of five choices. By April, it was over.

My current fifth-grader’s class didn’t fare as well. Graduation is Friday and several of his classmates are shut out of all of their choices, as are children all over the city.

The appeals process is underway. No one knows how it will go. This year decisions did not come in until mid-June. Many kids got the wrong letters. Some didn’t get letters at all, leaving it to the patient elementary school guidance counselors, parent coordinators and principals to help sort things out.

How were decisions made? No one can say for sure, but we do know that the Department of Education decided to centralize the process — meaning, take it out of the hands of the schools and districts, even though it was working well.

Did principals even look at applications this year? Was it just a numbers game, test scores and the like? I’m thinking about the carefully crafted hand-written notes my son and some of his friends wrote to their first-choice schools, describing why they wanted to be there. And those art and writing projects they attached?

Julie Shapiro wrote a good piece in the Downtown Express, describing the frustration and shock many families whose children are shut out of schools now feel. If I had a child entering fifth-grade next year, I’d be very concerned. Will the process be changed? If so, how? What should parents know? Whatever is decided, it’s critical that schools, district officials, principals, parent coordinators and guidance counselors give out THE SAME INFORMATION, which was not at all the case this year.

My younger son, as it turns out, is also going to Clinton and I feel lucky. But I’m sick about all the great kids left hanging, and the unfortunate impression of contempt the Department of Education is showing to children and families who truly want to be here and support city schools.

As families with special needs students continue to wait for their middle school placement letters, officials from the DOE are showing up at the monthly meeting of the citywide council on special education to discuss the delay.Both Ellen Newman, executive director for special education enrollment, and Sandy Ferguson, executive director for middle school enrollment, will be in attendance, and anyone is invited to sign-up at the door to speak.

Patricia Connelly, a member of the council, says she is “furious about this situation.” Comments on an earlier blog post about the delay for special education students show that many of you are also infuriated. Tonight is your chance to tell the DOE!

The meeting is today at 6:30 p.m. at PS 721K: the Roy Campanella Occupational Training Center, 64 Avenue X in Brooklyn. Get there early to sign up to speak, and short and sweet is your best bet — individual public comments will be held to 4 minutes or less.

For the full story on this latest placement debacle, see the article from this week’s Insideschools alert.

With the Obama/McCain showdown claiming more above-the-fold newspaper space and primetime television minutes each week, I have been considering the delicate relationship between teachers’ personal politics, and their educational obligations to their students. Children have no qualms about asking blunt questions, including “who did you vote for in the last election?” which I was often asked when I taught sixth and seventh grade social studies at IS 143 in Washington Heights.

My students really wanted to know what I believed. Most of them were immigrants or first-generation Americans, and they were learning about democracy and politics for the first time in my class. They struggled in particular to understand modern political parties, and they wanted to know what the adults they looked up to believed, so that they could begin to build their own political opinions.But is it fair for teachers to share their personal political views with students or is it a teacher’s job to present the all of the ideas and arguments and teach the students the skills they need to form their own opinions? According the chancellor’s regulations, it is forbidden: all DOE employees “shall maintain a posture of neutrality with respect to all candidates,” while on the job, but in reality, this is not always followed. And remember what happened when a Bronx high school teacher and his students made a video for the Obama campaign this fall?Stanley Fish, a distinguished professor who has worked at several prominent universities, would also argue against bringing politics into the classroom. Fish writes in his New York Times blog that it is not only possible but critical that teachers don’t share their personal political opinions with their students. Gray Lady readers, particularly those who are also professors, have responded in force, igniting a vigorous debate that Fish has now responded to twice (I have even noticed some of my own professors from college chiming in).

But the relationship between politics and teaching is not just confined to higher-education. The commentators who complain that kids don’t know enough, or care enough, about the democratic process are usually quick to blame elementary, middle and high school teachers. If teachers are passionate about politics, should they share that with their students? I am inclined to side with Professor Fish and argue that politics need to be taught but not partisan ideas. In this presidential election year, do you think that teachers’ political opinions should be shared or silenced while they are at school?

In the days since middle-school placements were announced, we’ve heard repeatedly from parents of kids in CTT and self-contained special ed classes: Some students haven’t received seats in middle school, even though they will graduate from grade school in a few days.

“Special education students will receive their placements this week,” according to the DOE’s Andy Jacob, who says that “a more comprehensive approach” to placement, along with making sure needed services are in place, cost the process “a few additional days” (which others might describe as a week or more, but never mind).

Elementary school guidance counselors were told that the special-ed students’ placements would follow mainstream-ed matches, according to the DOE. Whether and when parents were similarly informed — and if not, why not — remains unclear. (We’ve asked.)

Parents who write us say there’s a two-tier approach to middle school admissions, and that special-ed kids are treated as “second-class citizens.” It’s hard to believe that’s actually true, but easy to see how parents, waiting for middle-school news and wanting the best for their children, can think it possible.

Readers, please keep us posted on when your special-needs children receive middle school placements. Also, we’d love to know how the school your child is offered compares with the choices ranked on the application. Thanks as ever for your feedback.

We’ve heard troubling news from parents in Brooklyn: It seems that some rising sixth-graders with special needs, both those who participated in Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) classes and self-contained classes, haven’t yet received middle school seats. The news is especially worrisome because many elementary schools hold graduation ceremonies this week; it stands to reason that kids and families should know where they’ll be going in September.

If your child is in this situation, please let us know — and be certain, we’re asking the DOE for clarification.

I’m Lindsey Whitton Christ, the new Insideschools staff writer. Although I am new to the Insideschools team, I have used both the blog and the website for years, first as a social studies teacher at IS 143 and then as a journalism student at Columbia. I am thrilled to begin contributing! On a visit to PS 183 on the Upper East Side this week, I watched a group of excited fifth graders distress the edges of the paper on their own pioneer diaries, and I was reminded of my favorite computer game as a child, Oregon Trail. The students were undoubtedly so enthusiastic (they were falling all over each other to tell me everything they had learned about westward expansion) because the project let them imagine that they were pioneers experiencing the trail. The computer game had allowed me to do the same thing – although on a clunky 1980s Apple computer it was hardly the degree of computer simulation we are now used to. While computer games can be a distraction, they can also be a great tool for learning. With social studies, computers can help students to model life in the past and understand social history. Sandra Day O’Connor has even gotten in on the game. My seventh graders would have loved to use the website the former justice is helping develop about the American justice system. My sixth graders each spent a short time on computers doing an activity on mummification and then they talked about what they learned for weeks. And I know several, otherwise mature, adults who would never admit that they occasionally stay up late creating civilizations on their computer.During summer vacation when it’s too hot to go outside, which games do you encourage your children to play? And which (be honest) do you like to play with them?

Delays, confusion and misinformation have marked the middle school choice process this year, and it is simply unacceptable. This is a perfect example of the Department of Education putting children last. Principals and guidance counselors in the elementary and middle schools have tried to be patient and reassuring and worked hard to get answers that either keep changing — or apparently do not exist.

This year was confusing from start to finish. We couldn’t schedule tours in the fall, then — suddenly — we could! Parents who got the information somehow signed up, others found themselves shut out, only to have tours open again in December in January.

The deadlines for notification kept changing as well, leaving kids and parents on edge for way too long. Last week, in one Brooklyn school where the kids were becoming unbearably antsy, the school just typed up their own letter from the list they got from the DOE and handed them out in class — not the best strategy for kids who got disappointing news.

Imagine telling your 10 or 11-year-old child, who for months has been waiting to hear from one of the five carefully chosen middle schools they selected after endless touring, that they did not get into ANY of them.

That has happened to several families I know in Manhattan, and it’s an issue in Brooklyn as well, with children being assigned to middle schools that they did not apply to — or left without a middle school altogether, and directed to a second admissions round.

Are these kids with troubled records or academic difficulties? ABSOLUTELY NOT. In the cases I’m aware of, these are great kids, with solid test scores and the kinds of families who organize special events and field trips, volunteer endlessly and make it clear in everything they say and do that they support public education in New York City.

There are no pat answers or explanations either, because no one knows with much certainty how decisions were made, especially for the highly valued ones that are overwhelmed with applications.

It is not okay to simply accept that in any choice-based process, some children will get left out. That is not an outcome that we must simply live with. It’s too early to say how the appeals process will work in these cases, but in the meantime kids and families are suffering unecessary anxiety and pain.

It is not okay to promise answers by early May, and deliver them six weeks later with no explanation at all. If Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s idea was to equalize the process, where is he now with the explanation, the apology and a plan to fix the problems?

The fault lies in the idea that the DOE decided at some point to “centralize,” both pre-k and middle school choice this year, perhaps to make life easier for administrators. That’s the only explanation I’ve seen in the New York Times last week.

The New York Daily News has also tried to get answers: The explanation? First time the DOE had coordinated the processes in different districts.

That’s not good enough. And it simply doesn’t resonate with kids and families who are spending this month trying to get answers — and trying to reassure their children that indeed, everything will work out, when they really can’t say those words with much confidence.

Two years ago when my older son went through middle school choice and the district was in charge, the tours ran on time, notification came by April and questions asked were answered.

Let’s get some answers now.

As plenty of parents can attest, talk has been swirling about pre-K and middle-school appeals, and second round applications for pre-K. Here’s the latest:

Appeals for pre-K are due to the DOE by next Friday, June 13. These appeals are meant to address clerical/record-keeping issues, like address changes, name misspellings, etc. These are NOT for parents who wish to appeal their child’s exclusion from pre-K.

If you feel your child was wrongly placed or simply excluded from your zoned school, write the DOE’s OSEPO office at Tweed pronto, if you haven’t already. There is no hard deadline for these letters, but their aim is to resolve all open queries before the round-two pre-K apps begin on June 23d.

To participate in the second round of pre-K admissions, get hold of an application from your borough OSEPO office. Parents seeking sibling priority seats should receive them by mail from the DOE. (Be good enough, readers, to let us know if and when the 2nd round applications arrive — thanks.) The second round begins on June 23d; there is no deadline yet set for that process, although one will be decided soon (says the DOE) and posted here, of course, and on their site.

Caveat emptor, parents: If you elect to participate in round two and are granted a pre-K seat, you are obliged to accept that seat for your child. In other words, you can’t hold on to a first-round placement in hopes of another, somehow better second placement. If your bid’s in the ring, you have to accept the outcome. Fair’s fair.

On middle schools, elementary schools in districts with appeals processes have, apparently, distributed appeals information. (Help us out again, here, readers: What’s in your child’s backpack?)

If your 5th-grader applied to a middle school in another district, contact the out-of-district school’s guidance counselor for appeals particulars. If you’re still unable to resolve your concerns, contact your borough OSEPO office — be patient, be prepared for some phone tag, but be persistent, too. Remember, not all districts have formal appeals processes. (In this case, fair’s not exactly fair.)

Parents in Brooklyn and elsewhere say some of their fifth-graders didn’t get any place at all in middle school, or got placed at schools they didn’t include on their applications. If this is true for your child, let us know — getting a sense of the scope of the challenge is the first step.

The Pre-K coverage in today’s Times brings familiar tales of woe — siblings bounced, in-zone kids displaced by out-of-zone applicants — but some semi-encouraging news: it seems that OSEPO might reconsider its plan to standardize next year’s kindergarten admissions. Other reports (and our own communication with the DOE) suggest that the DOE will be moving the middle school process earlier in the calendar year next year, to prevent bottlenecks and delays. While it’s little salve for this year’s slings and arrows, at least there’s hope that a) they’re listening and b) the process just may improve in its next iteration.

For readers waiting for answers to specific questions, we’re still waiting, too. With luck, we’ll have responses soon.

During the long wait to hear about middle school acceptance, I’ve had the chance to think about about what really matters during the often awkward and uncomfortable years.

By now, many parents have already analyzed academic programs, test scores, class size, location and any specialties they feel will be the right fit. That makes the wait a bit harder, because all those questions may have been discussed and circulated in your household or with your child’s classroom teacher for more than year. Tell us already, please!

In the meantime, I’m equally concerned with keeping my middle school kids participating in as many sports and activities as possible, some of which may be in jeopardy next year due to budget cuts.

City dwellers who’ve opted to raise kids in apartment buildings have learned early on the need for finding playgrounds, sports and outside activities. Unless you are comfortable putting your child in front of a television sets and video games for entertainment, your children may have already alienated your neighbors, with say, too many games of indoor soccer or football or furniture doubling as trampolines.

Once kids get to middle school, where everything said, done and worn is potentially embarrassing, their need to keep moving is even more essential. But few middle schools have full sports programs, a big topic of conversation this week at tryouts for the travel teams at Downtown United Soccer League, where my two boys have played on travel teams on and off for the last three years.

Many of the parents there wished their children’s middle schools had the capacity to train and sponsor competitive sports teams after school.

We know that middle school educators absolutely understand the need to keep kids moving. This spring, their efforts let to something extraordinary: A series of track and field events that allowed kids to compete in events like the long jump, shot put, and 75-yard-dash. Over 120 city schools and 30,000 children will now have a chance to compete at Icahn Stadium on June 21st.

The series started five years ago when three District Two teachers decided to hold a small meet in Chinatown. The movement has grown, fueled by coaches and teachers who are not getting paid for the extra time and effort it takes to train and build teams, not to mention the time it takes to transport them to meets and events. Many coaches are working without gyms, fields or equipment.

Manhattan Academy of Technology in Chinatown has had tremendous success in creating and sustaining a sports program, and is now pushing hard to get programs off the ground for other schools as well. This week, they are holding a meeting to discuss creation of a soccer league.

All these efforts must be applauded and supported, and parents should fight hard for sports and extra programs that may be threatened. Keeping our children in top shape and engaged in fun and healthy after school activities gives them confidence and a sense of well-being — and it saves a lot of furniture, too.

Middle-school parents, sit tight. The DOE says what they said yesterday: Everyone should have letters by June 9th, which seems an eon away when you’re waiting by the mailbox.

Am trying to confirm that all letters have been mailed — as press rep Andy Jacob said would take place by yesterday — and ask why District 2, 3, 15, and 21 families have yet to hear any news. More news when it’s known.

Commenters have spoken - separate threads, please, for distinct questions.

So, let’s start fresh. This post will establish a g+t middle school thread for parents who have heard, or have yet to hear, about their youngsters’ applications.

Kindergarten families, see the next post. (PreK, we’re still waiting for word — no new news, as of 2pm.)