Every time I arrive at an overcrowded school corridor to sign up for a three-minute parent teacher conference, I have the same thought: There must be a better way.

There are too many names on the sign-up list. The parents are anxious and antsy. It’s always too hot and crowded, and I immediately start feeling sorry for the teachers, besieged by questions.

With one child in middle school and another in high school, I am officially a veteran of New York City public school parent teacher conferences. I’ve developed a few survival strategies.

If possible, I take a personal or vacation day and attend the afternoon session in an effort to avoid ridiculous evening lines.Even so, I can’t beat the system.

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Last night, I read my daughters Bread and Jam for Frances. My favorite part is the end, when Frances relishes every bite of her sophisticated boxed lunch (Lobster salad! Cream of tomato soup!) and “makes it all come out even.” Alas, in my house, a steady diet of peanut butter and jelly has done nothing to make picky Night Owl beg for something new. Cafeteria lunch? Forget it! We’ve tried. Each time, she eschews the healthier options in favor of a white hamburger bun dipped in ketchup. I figure we’re better off packing lunch.

Volunteering in the lunchroom, I’ve seen an impressive variety of homemade offerings on display. There are Caribbean stews and colorful Chinese stir-fries. My friend Min, who is from Korea, makes her son freshly steamed rice, on which she arranges black beans into a letter of the day. All of these lunches look healthy and hearty, and the children devour them.

A recent New York Times article detailed the art of the bento box; some of their examples dazzlingly intricate. If I had hours to spend sculpting bunnies out of food and thought it would coax Night Owl to eat more, perhaps I would perfect this craft. And I do get the idea of the bento box: to juxtapose as many colors, textures and food groups as possible, for nutritional value and visual appeal. A friend of mine packs Laptop Lunches, westernized bento boxes she says force her to create a varied and balanced meal — and leftovers work just fine for filling the compartments. (more…)

I admit it: last year, I ditched out early on our PTA meeting (my daughters were climbing on me). This year, I vowed not only to attend but to listen carefully until the bitter end — which was more than an hour and a half. Many other parents seemed to be doing the same, even those toting squirming babies. After all, we want to know how budget cuts will affect our children, what might be whisked away, how we can all help. It’s harder, this year, to take for granted that certain programs and services will magically happen on their own.

Our principal declared herself optimistic, despite the 5% cuts we’re being hit with. She opened the meeting on an upbeat note, reading friendly letters students had written to her over the summer — one, amusingly, begged for better toilet paper in the school bathrooms. As the stream of teachers and parents spoke, I realized just how much of what helps our school succeed comes from the PTA. They make many of our arts programs possible. They maintain the web site. They organize enrichment classes taught by parents (last year, a dad helped kindergartners make a movie). They pay for some of the school’s supplies. And, of course, they raise the money and recruit parent volunteers to do all of this. (more…)

Parents, teachers, facilities managers, and students can share ideas and information about schools going green on a new citywide website, Green Schools NYC. Green schools experts can post links, ideas, and information, while people looking for ideas and advice on greening schools can find them on the site, or ask experts for information.

The more users who  join the website, the more useful it will be for both experts and newbies. Already participating on the site are parents and teachers at schools that have worm composting projects (that give kids a science lesson while reducing food waste) and parents at schools who are throwing green-themed fall festivals.

The Links and Resources page contains links to local organizations that provide programs, advice, and curriculum on schools going green, including one where children visit farms and cook meals with freshly picked vegetables. The new site makes it easy to post documents, such as the Back To School Green Schools Supplies memo posted by a mom at PS 334, which can be downloaded and adapted by other schools. (more…)

Over the past two weeks I have been struck by the overwhelming response to Insideschools’ post on banning parent-funded assistants from public schools. After reading through the numerous, impassioned comments, the old saying “crabs in a barrel” came to mind. It is a metaphor that I have heard commonly applied to African Americans over the years. It refers to the supposed tendency of one segment of the community to attempt to hold back another upward-bound individual or segment. The eventual result is that no one succeeds. It seems that once again parents are pitted against each other in a battle for the finest education.

One parent noted that the PTA-funded assistants have allowed some schools to continue to thrive where they may have otherwise faltered due to overcrowding. Another parent voiced concern that schools serving the working class are left out completely because they receive neither Title I funds, nor a wealth of money from parent donations. Still another parent commented that the average family in New York City cannot afford several hundred dollars in yearly school fees. (more…)

In an editorial in today’s Daily News, Eva Moskowitz weighs in on the controversial  decision by the Department of Education to  clamp down on parent associations paying for non-union teaching aides in their children’s classrooms. Her take? Schools benefit from parent fund-raising that helps lower class size, especially in middle class schools which get less funding than those with a high percentage of low income students.  She posits, “The UFT doesn’t like it because these aspiring teachers aren’t union members.”

Commenters on Insideschools have been debating the merits of the practice, which according to the New York Times, only affects about 18 highly desirable city schools. Some argue that this is “another example of  Bloomberg steamrolling important parent input,”  that  will “drive more  middle class [families] out of the city. ” Others argue that, “It’s a public system and there should be a level playing field.” A few commenters suggest ways in which schools across the city can “pool fundraising.” Others note the role of the powerful teachers union, which filed a grievance last fall about the hiring practice. (more…)

A group of Upper West Side parents, elected officials and other concerned citizens has been meeting this summer to plan a new, academically challenging high school focused on journalism and writing to open with a 9^th grade class in fall, 2010, in the Brandeis High School building on West 84^th Street. The group, organized by City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, hopes the school will be named in honor of Frank McCourt, a former Stuyvesant High School teacher and author of the bestseller Angela’s Ashes ,who died on Sunday.

The school is still in the planning stages, but the parents, led by Tom Allon, publisher of the West Side Spirit who taught with Frank McCourt at Stuyvesant, hope it will grow to serve between 800 to 1,000 students. That’s small enough to give students a sense of community, but large enough to offer art, drama, several foreign languages, Advanced Placement, special education and services for English Language Learners that are often missing at the new small schools that have been created in recent years. The Department of Education is interviewing prospective “project directors” for the school this summer. The “project director” will be hired part-time in the fall and, if the school is approved by the DOE, will likely be assigned as principal early in 2010. (more…)

Taking a page from the District 3 playbook, yesterday parent representatives of Manhattan’s District 2, joined by the United Federation of Teachers, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education and schools Chancellor Joel Klein, charging violations of state law by DOE reconfiguration of neighborhood schools and programs without Community Education Council consultation or approval.

State education law mandates CEC participation in decisions that affect local schools. Yet “the DOE fails consistently to consult with the CEC,” according to the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff, District 2 CEC president Rebecca Daniels. “CEC members have an obligation to take action to right this wrong, to ensure that the voice of New York City public school parents is never silenced.”

The DOE backed down from the District 3 lawsuit in April, backpedaling on its plan to close traditional zoned public schools in Harlem and replace them with charters. The current suit lists a litany of DOE actions at elementary, middle, and high schools in the district; click here for more information.

How gerrymandered can an election get? Parents inquiring why the Community Education Council advisory vote results were not yet posted have discovered — once again — that the Department of Education has unilaterally decided to change the rules of CEC elections midstream.

Originally, the result of the parent advisory vote was to be posted publicly on the powertotheparents website in early May, according to that site’s home page. Instead, last week the DOE instructed the election vendor to withhold results of the parent advisory “straw poll” vote, which was intended to guide the real vote, until after the official selectors cast their votes, according to a Power to the Parents staffer.

The official CEC voting process is already convoluted: three PTA officials from each school each cast only two votes for candidates for the 12-member CECs. Deadlines for candidate sign-up, the straw poll, and the official voting have all been changed repeatedly this year at the DOE’s direction. In the latest change, the CEC voting deadline was extended to midnight tonight.

Still, I look forward to finding out who will be elected to my CEC for the coming two-year term. As the new mayoral control law is considered, it will be up to next year’s crew to promote parents’ voices in the system. Preventing the DOE from manipulating community elections is one of many reasons why parent advocates would like to see administration of the CECs be made independent from the DOE — perhaps placed under the Public Advocate’s office.

As part of the rewrite of mayoral control legislation, CEC3 supports a public November CEC election held alongside other public elections. The current system is devised, controlled, and constantly changed in a murky and undemocratic manner by DOE. “Power to the parents,” it’s not.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Representatives of other CEC’s are also speaking out about issues surrounding the election. Here is a letter sent on May 19 from the District 31 CEC to Jacqui Lipson, the CEC administrative coordinator at the DOE, raising concerns similar to those Jennifer wrote about in this post:

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Dear Readers,

Last week’s question concerned a student theft of another student’s property. Judging from the number of comments this column received, this question clearly struck a nerve with parents. Debate among readers ranged from blaming the incident on the student for bringing a forbidden cell phone to school, to the school’s not having the personnel to adjudicate incidents.

To be fair, it can take many hours of a teacher’s or guidance counselor’s time to resolve incidents like this, to the detriment of other work. And yes, cell phones are banned from school, although some schools turn a blind eye to the rule. But my bottom line is this: it is the schools’ responsibility to respond to parents’ concerns. Schools may not be technically guilty in cases of theft, but they are guilty of ignoring or dismissing parents’ and students’ problems. Schools should develop a specific routine and designate personnel to handle such incidents, the routine should be included in the safety plan, and the safety plan should be given out to all parents. The Parents Association must be part of the team that sets up the plan.

An even more important question not mentioned by commenters is, how can the school establish a climate that engenders respect for the school community and reduces student-to-student crime, bullying, and other discipline problems? My answer: spend a lot of time working toward that goal. Here are some ways to do that: (more…)

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Morning and afternoon rallies will bracket lawmakers’ workdays this Wednesday, May 6, with the focus squarely on kindergarten admissions. This year public school kindergarten admissions feature wait lists, overcrowding, and increasingly high demand for seats in neighborhoods where parents are being turned away from — or asked to patiently wait for — their zoned schools.

Starting with a 9  a.m. march from Battery Park, leading to a public event in City Hall Park at 10:30, “thousands” of city parents, union members and plain citizens are expected to  join AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO) organizers to protest the Bloomberg budget proposal that cuts kindergarten from New York City-administered day care centers. The proposed closures would  effectively move 3,500 (or more) youngsters from city-run day care to public-school kindergarten classrooms (or wait lists). Event organizers say that at least three dozen City Council members will be present, as will Comptroller William Thompson, at least two borough presidents – Marty Markowitz of Brooklyn and Helen Marshall of Queens — and union leaders from New York and Washington, D.C.

That afternoon at 4 p.m., education advocates and parents will rally on the steps of City Hall to protest a “Kindergarten Krisis,” charging that more than 400 schoolchildren have “no school seats” for the fall term, particularly in neighborhoods like Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Tribeca, and Greenwich Village, where high demand has met with a limited supply of desirable kindergarten space. The problems are not unique to Manhattan: Brooklyn’s District 20 faces stiff challenges in its oversubscribed elementary and middle schools, and District 24 in Queens has already been busing young children, moving entire grades to schoolyard trailers, and making do with buildings that serve twice as many children than they were built to shelter.

Insideschools.org is surveying elementary-school principals to learn more about the kindergarten admissions process this year; feel free to comment below, especially if you know of a school or a district where the problems are particularly acute.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Insideschools.org has learned about an overlooked bit of bureaucrat-ese that deserves wide exposure — and considerable challenge as well, especially given the Chancellor’s recent endorsement of parent involvement — see powertotheparents.org – and his administration’s long record of shutting down similar channels under the guise of school reform and restructuring.

Chancellor’s Regulation 660 prohibits ordinary public citizens, not to mention their elected representatives, members of the wider community, and advocates of every stripe, from attending Parent Association meetings unless express permission for their visit has been granted by a prior vote of the entire PA . That’s right: The whole parent association should approve any potential guests or speakers ahead of scheduled PA meetings. Here’s a snippet from the reg, and a link to a pdf of the whole text (see page 54, II D for the section below).

“Other than the principal or his/her designee, outside observers and speakers are prohibited from attending unless the PA bylaws specifically allow attendance by invitation of the association after the vote. A PA must vote to invite an outside speaker for a specific purpose at a particular meeting.”

What this would mean, in practice, is that attendance at PA meetings would be strictly and completely controlled by the PA itself, excluding any and all outside observers, including prospective parents, expert speakers, consultants and others interested in the city’s schools. It means that you, as a parent, can’t drop in on a PA meeting at a school you’re considering for your child, because you’re not yet part of that school community. Any guests or speakers must be approved by prior vote, after which an invitation may (or may not) be extended. This doesn’t seem, on face value, like a strategy that’s designed to increase parent participation. This seems the total opposite, a directive that’s designed to stifle communication and profoundly inhibit dialogue.

Whether the regulation violates state education law, Section 414(1)(c) which permits public access to school property that’s used for “social, civic, and recreational meetings” is, as the wonks say, above my pay grade. (But worry not, the NYCLU is learning more about the regulation, too. ) And whether Parent Associations will actually bar speakers and uninvited public from their meetings seems highly debatable. One activist PA president listed more than 25 guests and speakers who have enriched school meetings this year alone — and invited the Chancellor to fire him for violating the regulation.

The core question: What is the DOE trying to prevent, in this regulation? And following on that, if the DOE and Chancellor Klein actually intend to increase the voice of parent-stakeholders in school reform — as they say they do — how does shutting people out of public meetings achieve that purpose?

“Hi. My name is Marni, and I am addicted to autism parent support groups.”

Is there a 12-step-program out there for me? And if so, do I have to start attending another series of monthly meetings to break my addiction to my current monthly meetings?

It all started when Brooks first got diagnosed. My Early Intervention Service Coordinator suggested that my husband and I attend a support group, which we agreed was a good idea, but it took us a little time to actually get there. First of all, we were in the midst of scheduling 20 hours a week of therapy for our 18-month-old, which seemed no less complicated or foreign to us than launching a space shuttle. Secondly, and more to the point, we didn’t want to go. Our rationale was that Brooks would catch up to his peers within a few months, we didn’t need a support group — “nose to the grindstone” was our modus operandi.

When it became abundantly clear that we could benefit from the kind of help that only others in our situation could offer, and that dealing with this pesky autism problem meant more than a few months, we finally showed up to a meeting. And we’ve been showing up ever since. We pass around pictures of our kids, we talk, we sometimes cry (at least, I sometimes cry — although not so much anymore). We share information: this worked, that didn’t, try this school, offer this supplement, read this book…the subtext of each question or comment always: “Tell me my child will be okay.” And all the while, a gentle and caring moderator keeps us from disintegrating into despair and chaos, turning our deepest fears into opportunities to help one another.

At this point, you might be wondering what the problem is. What’s the downside of all this support? The problem is that these groups multiply. Exponentially. In addition to the original one, there are two groups from Brooks’s old school, one from his new school, one from the Y — and the ones I learn about every few months that I force myself not to sign up for.

Over the holidays, I finally came to the realization that my overall well-being might be better served if I stayed home occasionally and cooked dinner for my family (don’t laugh, people who know me — I sometimes do that!) instead of going to yet another meeting to talk about how I wish I had more time to stay home and cook dinner for my family.

So it is with conflicting emotions that I am about to stop regularly attending that original support group, and most of the others. In a positive sense, I feel like I’ve graduated: I no longer feel the desperate need for the safety net of a steady Brooks-related place and time to fall apart or celebrate, whatever the case might be. On the other hand, I feel compelled to stay connected with at least one group, and I’ve thankfully been offered welcome mats to stop back in to any group I’ve left should the need arise, or just to check in.

I’m sad, too, because I know that it will be easy to lose touch with a lot of people I’ve come to know and respect, but I’m hopeful that I can find some way to maintain these relationships. I’m proud to have been in the trenches with these parents: they have helped my family time and time again, and I hope that the help has gone both ways.

So now, Brooks can stop asking: “Mommy, are you going to a meeting?” and start asking “Mommy, what are you making for dinner?” Now my problem is (and those of you who know me and my lack of kitchen skills will know this already), how to learn to expand my dinner repertoire beyond hot dogs. Any “Parents Who Can’t Cook” support groups out there?

Today marks the launch of the third annual school learning environment survey through which the DOE aims to hear from 1.5 million New Yorkers — parents, students, teachers, and other schools professionals. Students in grades 6 through 12 are invited to make their opinions known, as are parents and educators citywide. The surveys inform each school’s annual Progress Report (learning environment counts for 15 percent of the grade) and are useful to direct change and improvements at individual schools, according to those at the DOE. Surveys will come home from school in bright green envelopes (for secondary, middle and high school students) or be delivered by mail.

Building on a strong online response in 2008 and on steadily increasing participation since 2007, the DOE encourages people to respond electronically, either from personal computers (at home, work, or school) or from public-access free computers at the city’s libraries. To see how your child’s school did last year — or how it stacks up compared to other schools — check out DOE’s Survey Quest, a new feature this year.

Nearly 500 schools opted for paperless surveys for students and teachers this year, a move that the DOE says will save more than a quarter-million sheets of paper. Compressing the survey from last year’s two-page, 8×14 format to 2009’s single sheet translates to major resource conservation as well: According to the DOE’s press release, that’s the e-equivalent of six tons of paper — and a whole forest or two full of trees.

CEC veteran and regular contributor Jennifer Freeman takes nuts-and-bolts questions about CECs in advance of the upcoming CEC elections.

Q: Why should people run for their Community Education Council?

A: CEC members are advocates for parents on local, district-level education issues, such as how school buildings are used and how DOE policies affect schools in each district. Being a CEC member is a way of giving back to your community.

Right now there’s a debate going on about the role of CECs, District Leadership Teams, and the Panel for Education Policy, all of which are drastically weakened versions of the community school boards and Board of Ed that existed before mayoral control became law. It may be that some powers and duties will be strengthened during the coming term. In any case, the new candidates could be a part of the debate.

Q: How do CEC members get their voices heard?

A: Since public policy is made by individuals, getting to know people at DOE gives you a chance to influence that policy. As a member of your CEC, you get to sit in a room every once in a while with 30 to 40 other parent advocates and speak directly to the chancellor. (Even the state education committee doesn’t have this kind of access.) You also have opportunities to meet and talk with parent leaders from across the city. You can get to know your community superintendent and DOE officials by working with them at meetings. If you seek information from the DOE, your calls are likely to be answered.

Q: How do people run for CEC positions?

A: Parents of current public school students can nominate themselves through March 14 via an online process created and administered by the Department of Education. DOE says the process will be online starting Monday, February 23rd at the new website they are calling “powertotheparents.org.” Candidates will have the chance to present their ideas at one candidate forum, and elections will be held in mid-May.

The DOE has hired a small nonprofit organization called Grassroots Initiative to try to get more parents to step up and run. Jeff Merritt, Grassroots’ founder, used to work for the federal government helping recruit candidates and set up elections in new democracies such as Croatia and Albania. Back in the States, he founded Grassroots Initiative to help open up opportunities for people to participate in our democracy at home, starting by running for local office. Merritt’s goal is to help make the CEC selection process more inclusive and participatory. He said he will reach out in the coming weeks to parent leaders and community activists in each district and seek a wide variety of people to run for the councils. “Information will be distributed through elected officials, community-based organizations, houses of worship, libraries, on-the-street outreach, advertising, email, direct mail, and, to some extent, through the schools,” he said.

In June 2008, the Community Education Council of District 3 passed a resolution recommending that future CEC members be chosen through public elections, as had been true for local School Board members, in order to increase public participation and fairness. The DOE did not respond to our proposal or seek any further feedback.

Yet this week the Department of Education announced that it has changed the CEC selection process “based on feedback from parent leaders.” The real change: the DOE is putting the process online this year, which will save about half a million dollars. Parents will receive notification by mail from the DOE explaining how to access the new website and ‘vote’ — which won’t really count, as the vote is described by the DOE as a straw poll intended to guide the actual, real elections. Many of the changes were pure spin, some of which was very funny, for those with a skeptical streak:

1. The name of the website that will handle the online voting for CEC members, who are nearly powerless since their predecessor group was deliberately gutted by the mayoral control law, is “powertotheparents.org.” That’s a good one.

2. DOE Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy (OFEA) chief Martine Guerrier chose over-the-top exuberance for the tone of her quote, perhaps to compensate for the lack of any authentic increase in parent power. “We are changing the way we partner with parent associations and redefining the relationship between families and their elected representatives,” Guerrier gushed. Very amusing!

3. The DOE is making a big fuss over a “straw vote” in which parents are invited to state their choice of CEC members in an online poll, which will have no bearing whatsoever on the actual vote (by district PTA officers). Why this illusion of influence would make parents feel more engaged or empowered is a mystery, so that one is perhaps not as funny.

Actual increases in the CECs’ powers and duties, and real improvements in the election process, can only be made by the state legislature, when it revisits the mayoral control legislation this June. So why all this hoopla? The smoke-and-mirrors approach fits with the DOE’s apparently fervent desire to avoid actual consultation with parents, preferring instead pretend “consultation.” Do they think no one will notice the difference? Can the leadership be so tone deaf that they thought this would truly make parents feel empowered? Once again I’m left with the impression that education in this city might be improved if fewer efforts were directed at public spin, and more at public projects — like keeping kindergartens open.

Editor’s Note: Curious about the website powertotheparents.org, I asked the DOE for details: The $500,000 project is being provided by two outside consulting groups, one to engineer the technical platform and the other to do outreach and marketing. The site will launch in late February. Whether the site will evolve from the CEC straw-poll process to exist as an actual, robust exchange for parents to reach DOE leaders is not yet known. (The name itself seems to reflect all the calls for parent involvement voiced at recent mayoral control hearings, but strong skepticism persists as to whether the nomenclature reflects anything of true substance.) - HZ

In yet another study that will stun savvy parents into a deep stupor, it’s been ‘exposed’ that plenty of book-fair products aren’t actual, legible books but playthings and decorations related to books — connected by the slickly effective marketing campaigns that made the Harry Potter series Scholastic’s sustaining economic juggernaut. (Recall, too, recent reports linking recess with happier, better-behaved kids.) Any parent who has sent a child to a school book fair with pocket money knows that posters, fancy doodads that perch on pencil erasers and cute, possibly fuzzy, bookmarks too often trump books.

Why is it that what parents know, in bone-deep experience, becomes reportable news when studies confirm common sense? And what do you do, when your kid brings home a Garfield poster instead of Treasure Island? Do you think schools should restrict book fairs to books only, or does that glitzy, gauzy, shiny stuff actually lure young readers into literature?

In a hearing that began promptly at 10 a.m. and continued well into the afternoon — with testimony scheduled from more than 65 witnesses, including heavy hitters like Learn NY/Harlem Children’s Zone Geoffrey Canada and New Visions president Robert Hughes — the State Assembly Education Committee, headed by Catherine Nolan, convened a hearing on mayoral control in their offices at 250 Broadway.

Notably, Chancellor Joel Klein appeared at the hearing to testify in favor of mayoral control, accompanied by Deputy Mayor Derek Walcott and other officials from the DOE. His support for mayoral control was no surprise; what was notable was that Klein appeared at all, a fact Assembly Member Nolan pointedly remarked on. This hearing, she said, “was the first opportunity the Chancellor has given us to question him” in the years that Nolan has headed the state education committee. (Years, plural, without a hearing with the Chancellor. No typo.)

Committee members posed questions to the Chancellor — some barbed, some thoughtful, some both — who responded, often with the catch-phrase “we need to do a better job on that,” to criticisms of the law and its consequences: The reduction of parent voices, the virtual eradication of district superintendencies, the political evisceration of both the Board of Ed and Community School Boards, which predated the current network of Community Education Councils. The net effect, to an observer’s eye, was skillful, gracious deflection of direct criticism, framed by the insta-acknowledgment that the work was ongoing. “What we have created is not perfect,” said the Chancellor as the hearing opened. “Our work has not been without mistakes.” And of the mayoral control statute itself: “This is not a sacred text — these are not tablets.”

After more than two hours of back and forth, the Chancellor and his entourage were spirited out a side doorway, leaving the hearing. Subsequent witnesses, including City Council Member and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson and Comptroller (and former Board of Education president) William Thompson addressed the panel. UFT President Randi Weingarten and Principal’s union head Andy Logan spoke, as well, later followed by former lawmakers, historians, and scores of advocates, school leaders, parent activists, and students.

While no individual (at least before 3 p.m.) stated outright the wish to abolish mayoral control, many, at the witness table and in the audience, strongly voiced the desire for greater transparency in DOE decision-making. They asked for an independent agency to oversee both budgets and school data, including test scores and grad rates, and for stronger, deeper, and more robust parent involvement. It’s hard to know what the folks left on the street might have said. After Chairwoman Nolan announced that the Fire Marshal would close the hearing down if the aisles and other spaces weren’t cleared, scores of people were left waiting outside 250 Broadway in the bitter cold and tons more sat in an overflow room with just the audio the proceedings piped in.

Additional hearings take place later this month and next in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. It is not known whether the Chancellor will return to this forum to field and respond to questions. It is certain, however, that hundreds of people have plenty to say — and that the debate, in the sunset season of this law, is long overdue.

I’ve been asked to provide some basics about what Community Education Councils are, and what they do. New CEC elections for all 32 school districts are coming up soon; a future post will discuss the time line and procedure. But some CEC spots are open right now. To find out if there are any vacancies in your district and how to apply, please contact Jacqui Lipson at jlipson@schools.nyc.gov.

What are CECs?: Until mayoral control, Community School Boards, comprised of local groups of elected advisors, were responsible for educational policy and spending decisions for each of New York City’s 32 community school districts. These boards were abolished in 2003, and replaced by the Community Education Councils.CECs have eleven members, two of whom are appointed by the borough president. (See below for details on the selection process.) CEC parent members serve two-year terms, after which they may run once more if they still have kids in elementary or middle school. Check here for the DOE’s FAQ about CECs.

Governor Pataki signed CECs into law in July 2003, at which time he was quoted as saying “Today’s creation of the new community governance structure will complete the final step in implementing those sweeping reforms of the city’s education system by ensuring that parents, community residents and citizens have a voice in how our children are educated.” Yet many parents and other residents continue to express concern that their voices are not well-represented in DOE policymaking.

How are CEC members chosen? In a process overseen by the DOE, CEC candidates nominate themselves and are voted on by PTA officers from their district. Many elected officials, education advocates and CEC members would like to see CEC members instead be elected in a public process, similar to the way Community School Boards were elected, but in November, as part of a larger election. To make this happen the State legislature will have to write it into the mayoral control law when it comes up for renewal this June.

What do CECs do? CECs bring parent issues and interests to the DOE at the district level. They gather information, convene meetings where parents can express their views, and pass resolutions. In most cases the role is advisory—a rare exception is that the DOE cannot change school zone lines without CEC approval. The powers and duties include approving of school zone lines and promoting student achievement. CECs generally meet twice a month during the school year, less in the summer. One meeting is public and open to all, and the other is a working session for CEC members. Issues CECs address include overcrowding and space utilization, kindergarten admission processes, and capital plan funding of school repairs.CECs discuss and debate with the DOE. This past year, our CEC dealt with zoning issues and helped schools respond to the new capital plan. We are now looking at how charter schools share space in public school buildings. We also held a mayoral control forum: most parents thought the law gives too little voice to parents.

Should you serve on a CEC?: Like most volunteer work, serving on a CEC is both gratifying and frustrating, mainly because the organization’s role in actual decision-making is almost purely advisory. But the satisfaction of achieving something once in a while for your child and community is real, and in the meantime you get to be part of the education debate, which is always lively in this town. I myself am off CEC3 come June, as my child will be graduating from middle school. The most experienced person on our CEC, Teresa Arboleda, is term-limited out. So if you have a child in District 3 Schools, please think about serving. All districts will have openings this year. You’ll be helping your kids, their schools — and their friends and your neighbors.

I have an 8 year old daughter who is in the top class; however the teacher told me that she is not interested in reading, writing and math, and is only interested in being social with the other children. She suggested I give her incentives. Can you give me some ideas to motivate my child to like reading, math and writing?

Puzzled Mom

Dear Puzzled Mom,

Do you know why she lost interest in her studies? Is she concentrating on friendships because she feels insecure and has to work hard to make and keep friends? Does she have a chance to see her friends after school or on weekends? You can help boost her self confidence by arranging playdates with friends. Is the work too difficult? If so, ask the teacher to schedule extra help or tutoring for her. Or, is she bored because the work is dull? If that’s the case, here are some ideas on how to keep her interested.

Introduce her to fun series books such as Ramona by Beverly Cleary, Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgrin, Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol, or Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne. Good books are great motivators. Teachers may see these books as too easy, but they usually have kids clamoring for more. Once she is hooked on a series, the next title could be a reward for reading what the teacher assigns. Tapes and movies of these books in combination with the published versions make stories come alive. Take the time to read, watch, or listen with her. You can find plenty of other appealing books at the public library. Ask a librarian to help find those that are geared to her interests.

Encourage your daughter to write to grandparents, aunts and uncles, or neighbors who all welcome mail from kids. She can start with e-mail, and if she gets a correspondence going, she can move on to cards for special occasions and then longer letters. Writing in a diary is also fun, made even more appealing if you give her a special notebook with a pretty cover. She can write privately after she does the required school journal writing. Or, you and your daughter can read poetry and write poems together. Your participation is really important!

If you or other family members are good at math, share fun problems and puzzles. Some kids like to do arithmetic in workbooks at home. Others respond to just fooling around with a calculator or using it to solve problems that come up in shopping, like figuring out which box of raisins is the best buy or making change.

With the teacher’s cooperation, (she’ll report to you the good behavior days) your daughter can have a notebook full of stickers - one for each time she pays attention in school and does her homework willingly. When the agreed upon number is reached, you’ll reward her with something you both agree upon: Some small change? A toy she’s been yearning for? A special treat?

And, if you’d like to hear an expert speak on the topic of motivation, consider going to a talk by Rick Lavoie, author of “The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child”. He will be speaking in Brooklyn on Feb. 11. See our calendar for details about this free event..

Good luck and have fun.

Judy

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

Two recent Times stories bookend the issue of parent involvement. At the first Mayoral Control hearing, held by members of the State Asssembly last week, an engaged and occasionally boisterous crowd held officials for hours as they asked questions and raised grievances. (Detailed coverage on the hearing is here.) These parents had plenty to say, and it seems they welcomed the chance at last to enter the forum of public opinion and speak their minds.

Today, a story on the closing of PS 90 in the Bronx circles around the idea of parent involvement, with comments from DOE leadership (Garth Harries, again), teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten, school leaders, and outside thinkers and education scholars — but scant representation of parent voices. Paul Weissman, commenter # 8 in the Times string, uses a harsh term I’d never encountered before– “educational orphans” — to describe kids whose parents can’t or don’t engage in active advocacy. (The term itself ignores the challenges faced by parents from other cultures, who constitute a large fraction of the PS 90 community, according to Principal Pat West, who spoke about the issue in November) But nomenclature aside, the question is real: Is the DOE making choices for kids who are basically free agents in the city’s school system?

Javier Hernandez’ Times story today quotes Garth Harries on the ‘nuances’ in the process of deciding whether to close a school. From outside, this looks as if DOE is trying to play both sides of the field: On one hand, statistical data (test scores, progress report grades, standardized measures of student progress) drive up-and-down decisions. On the other hand, schools with similar or identical scores can face different destinies — some closing, others surviving, depending on subjective factors. And no matter how DOE spins it, parents are systematically excluded from the decision-making dialogue that decides whether a school will close — a reality that’s sure to play a large role in the Mayoral Control debate. Another hearing will take place this Friday, February 6, in Manhattan. If you’ve got something to say, make the time to make your voice heard.

Q. My daughter is a high school junior. We want to start visiting colleges this year, and we want to know of programs or colleges offering scholarships to minority students (we are Haitian-Americans). We have heard of a program called “Posse” do you know anything about this? Also, my daughter plays the cello. What about academic or music scholarships? Thank you for any leads you can offer.
A. You and your daughter are at exactly the right point to start researching both colleges and scholarship opportunities. First you’ll need to research potential schools that can offer your daughter the academic, cultural, and social life that will help her thrive; then over spring break, on occasional weekends, and over the summer, you will need to make some campus visits so you can see things for yourselves.

At the same time, you need to research scholarship possibilities. Scholarships and grants, as opposed to college loans, are gifts. They will allow your daughter to pursue her education with reduced financial burdens. There are two kinds of scholarships: institutional and non-institutional. Institutional scholarships are those awarded by a specific college or university. Almost all schools have some form of scholarship, and these can range from full-tuition to a token amount; generally, all applicants to these schools are automatically considered for scholarships when they apply for admission.

The non-institutional scholarships are offered by outside organizations, and these will require research and separate applications. The application process usually begins at the start of the student’s senior year. Again, this outside help can range from full tuition to small grants of $100 - $500. The Posse Foundation is one of a number of organizations that seeks out talented public high school students “with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes.” In partnership with a number of colleges and universities, Posse offers these students 4-year, full-tuition scholarships. Students must be nominated by their high school or by community-based organizations.

Another great resource is BlackExcel.org, which offers a scholarship directory for minority students. You can find many leads here!

Some other organizations that seek out minority students include the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, and the Gates Millennium Scholars.

And there are even more opportunities! The college office at your daughter’s high school probably has the College Board’s comprehensive Scholarship Handbook 2009. This is for all students, not just minority students, and lists 2,100 scholarship programs offered by organizations nationwide. They are indexed by state, by organization, and by subject area. So you can look up, for example, science scholarships, math scholarships, scholarships for students who are leaders in community service, and scholarships for military dependents. In some cases, essays are required, while in others there are specific forms to complete. Your daughter can also go to the “Paying for College” section of the College Board’s website to perform her own scholarship search. The more information she provides at this site, the more she will find scholarship information attuned to her interests.

Your daughter’s musical talent could possibly be another source of scholarship funding if she plans to major in music, colleges may ask her to audition and then make awards based upon her musical talent. Specific talents and interests are another whole area of scholarship potential. The website of Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music offers a long list of music scholarships offered by many different organizations.

There are many organizations, large and small, that are committed to assisting all students in financing their educations. Unfortunately, the financial situations of a number of these groups may have changed during the current economic crisis. Still, there will be many viable opportunities. Now, in the middle of your daughter’s junior year, is the perfect time to start the research!

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To the extent that parents’ voices are represented in the New York City education system these days, Community Education Councils are charged with representing them at the school district level. The Community Education Council of District 3 passed a resolution last June on mayoral control, saying that the system would be greatly improved with more transparency, checks, and balances.

CEC3’s specific recommendations — reflecting weeks of hearings, surveys, and discussions with parents and other community members in our district — include: more disclosure, transparency, and independent analysis of DOE data; a stronger and more independent Panel on Education Policy, with members appointed to fixed terms; and more high level decision making roles filled by professional educators, including a mandate that either the Chancellor or the top official in charge of teaching and learning be an experienced educator.

Other parent groups are also working on recommendations on how to improve the mayoral control law when it comes under review next June. The Parents’ Commission on Mayoral Control & School Governance, a group consisting of two dozen parent activists, has been working all fall on a legislative proposal set to be released next month.

Unfortunately, some seem to be taking a “with-us-or-against-us” stance on the law, rather than welcoming discussion on how it might be improved. Last week both the Post and the Daily News guffawed in a bullying manner at State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver for saying that the mayoral control law will need to be “tweaked.” Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters pointed out that the attacks, in which both papers made nearly identical points on the same day, seemed coordinated by City Hall.

The experiences of my children provide a sanity check for me on how well the system is working. The seventeen (17) school days on which my child will be taking standardized tests this year seems excessive. (The teachers and administrators at our school agree.) Our afterschool program funding for next year is uncertain. The amazing staff at our school put on a talent show last month. They danced and sang and told jokes to raise money to compensate for some of the mayor’s midyear funding cuts. I don’t know what they will do for an encore when further cuts are implemented next fall. We can hope, wish, and pray that the Department of Education spends less money on its testing bureaucracy and ensures that sufficient operational funding gets to the kids, but we have few avenues to influence these decisions. If the mayoral law is amended in a thoughtful manner, the system might be improved for all its participants.

It isn’t easy getting information from a 13-year-old, which is one reason I’m at least mildly curious about the interviews my son had as part of the torturous high school application process.

“So how did it go?’’ I asked, after he at least managed to find the high schools in question on his own and arrive on time. “I don’t know,’’ came his non-committal reply.

As a New York City public school parent and veteran of pre-school hysteria, I’ve been down this road before. Ten years ago, I remember dressing him in little checkered overalls and tiny red shoes for his first “interview,’’ at one of the highly competitive pre-schools in our neighborhood. I crossed my fingers and hoped his potty training would hold up, and that he would not grab another child’s toy or start screaming. After successfully steering a plastic fire truck on a gym floor, he was accepted into a lovely church nursery school and spent three joyous years playing Lego, learning letters, and building sand castles.

Segue to elementary school at PS 150 in Tribeca, where all fifth-graders got preparation for answering middle school interview questions. He managed to get through that okay as well.

But high school interviews are different. The stakes are far higher now as the most selective and coveted schools rank their top candidates in a process that has included everything from separate exams to portfolio and report card reviews and recommendation letters.

“So what did you talk about?’’ I persisted. “Nothing much,’’ he replied. I can only hope he was a bit more articulate to whoever was sitting across from him and taking notes at the time.

“We talked about a lot of stuff,’’ I finally got. A little probing revealed some fairly creative and interesting questions on the parts of the reviewers, who have typically included teachers, former students, parent coordinators, and school officials. Some interviews were more like a conversation, with book questions and a discussion of popular movie like “Twilight’’ and shows like “South Park.’’

One question caught my attention. “If you could design the perfect high school, what would it have?’’ It wasn’t asked of me, but I’ve decided to take a crack anyway. I’ll have to keep the answer within both public school and New York City limitations. (Forget about outdoor space, athletic fields, a campus, and class sizes under 20.)

How about a challenging curriculum and a rich menu of performing opportunities in the arts, including music and drama, along with classes (preferably) or clubs in studio arts, photography, and video?

Why not add well-equipped science labs along with community service options, field trips, and opportunities? Oh, I would really appreciate an exciting choice of after school activities, an array of sports teams (both competitive and intramural) and a caring, kind cadre of teachers and administrators who know most kids by name. Advanced placement and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs are highly appreciated as well, as are guidance counselors who understand the college application process in and out but are also sensitive enough to elicit responses from simple questions like: “How did it go?’’ What about schools that offer excellent, challenging English language studies for new speakers — over and above the International High Schools — and strong learning options across all city high schools for kids with special needs?

An eighth-grader enduring the maddening admissions process and trying to get a top public school education in New York City might be afraid to answer that question.

And I can’t say I blame them.

In a story that’s not made many headlines at all, Education Week reports on a new rule by the US Department of Education that permits parents of students with special needs to opt out of classes and programs designed to support their kids, in favor of mainstream, general education. It’s not clear why parents would elect to let go of educational options that can range from special classes and in-class supports to extra time (and quiet) on exams, and it stirs up disturbing echoes of what’s been mentioned anecdotally by more than a few high-school principals: Families of students with special needs often feel a strong stigma when their child is classified with an individualized education program, or IEP. The perceived stigma seems to increase as children mature, principals say. Some parents even reject the opportunity to have their child assessed for special needs, because the social concerns — what will people think, what will they say — are so strong.

The conflicts this new rule exposes are thorny and nuanced: Of course, parents should have every right to determine their child’s education. And of course, and guaranteed by the Individuals with Disablilites Education Act, every child with any kind of special need deserves to be educated in the most appropriate, effective setting. But where do the rights of the child override the rights of the parents? Should parents be permitted to make educational decisions that will clearly hamper their child’s progress? Who’s “the decider” here — schools? parents? psychologists and education evaluators? When does a child have her or his own voice? And can that young voice, somehow, be part of the conversation?

If anyone tells you the high school process in New York City is relatively painless, don’t believe them. Would you believe someone who told you they breezed through high school and loved every moment of it?

Essays, interviews, test and portfolio preparation and auditions eat up nights and weekends for you and your 13-year-old. Taking tours (when you remember to sign up and aren’t shut out) guarantees being late for work. Open houses mean waiting on line. As the deadline (Dec. 2) approaches, another parent’s opinion may have to substitute for real information.

Students can list up to 12 choices, although they’ll get just one offer. Students are assigned to high schools based on how they rank them and how they are ranked by the schools. Harvard University’s Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons, whose territory includes New York City, told me he’s always known “that it’s much more difficult to get into any school in New York than it is to get into Harvard.’’ I’m sure I’ll be better at this by the time we are looking for colleges, but I feel like I fell down on the job this fall: We are putting three high schools on the list that we hope would be acceptable, based on reports from Insideschools.org, even though we couldn’t make the tours.

Conversations around lists and rankings are starting to sound remarkably familiar and repetitive. For example, if Beacon really is everyone’s first choice for a non-specialty high school, can what they are doing please be replicated and spread out a bit? After all, Beacon received 4,600 applications last year for just 262 spots. New York City parents are willing to do the hard work of finding, touring, ranking and then supporting good public high schools — as long as we are assured of having good choices. Schools that offer a rich program of arts, clubs and sports, along with plenty of advanced courses and an enthusiastic staff will naturally have enormous appeal to both parents and to kids. High schools like Millennium, where the student tour guides gushed about how happy they are, made a huge impression. Schools with overcrowded classrooms where we watched students doze through lessons were less appealing, as was a school where kids appeared to be working extremely hard but never cracked a smile.

With choice comes the hope that you will find a good fit for your child at a time when fitting in counts enormously. High school can be a really painful time, and in case you don’t recall, try renting some old films about high schools like the 1985 John Hughes classic “The Breakfast Club.’’ Stereotyped characters are all there: the jock, the nerdy geek, the popular beauty queen, the angry misfit. The giant suburban Illinois high school in “The Breakfast Club” has little in common with the kinds of schools we’ve been touring in New York City, but the harrowing and heartfelt pain of trying to fit in seemed instantly recognizable. And after all the hard work we’ve done already, no matter where any of our kids end up, they’ll have to figure it out.

In order to accommodate voting machines and long lines of voters, there was no school today for city students (although teachers and administrators had to show up for professional development). Early indicators suggest that a high turn-out of New York adults had the chance wait for hours inside their local public school with an array of celebrities, politicians and cookies – PTA election bake sales have gotten a lot of attention today.

Some parents struggle to manage work, voting and childcare - would changing election-day to Saturday help? And do you bring your kids to the polls? Do you let them pull the lever? David Sedaris remembers his mother letting him decide for her. Most students at Townsend Harris High School can’t vote, but they had elaborate mock-elections leading up to the election.

An election-day profile of a politician-turned-charter-school-leader (who plans to run someday for the city’s highest elected office), reminds us how closely politics and the schools are intertwined everyday of the year. And finally, a particularly lively choir of middle school students remind us that “you can vote however you like…”

by Liz Willen

As a veteran of both middle school and high school tours (not to mention the many college tours I’ve been on as an education journalist), I’m getting really sick of the will-my-child-get-in question. It’s become as annoying as the incessant “are we there yet?” mantra from the back seat of the car.

Of course, in the highly competitive world we inhabit, it’s only natural to freak out a bit about high-school admission, particularly when criteria are so vague.

Top New York City high schools that don’t require the specialized high school exam – schools like Baruch College Campus High School and Lab School for Collaborative Studies, for example – might ask for an average of 85 and above and 3s or 4s on the seventh-grade math and ELA exams. Since thousands of students meet these requirements, the number of applicants far exceeds the spaces. No wonder parents and kids are anxious about who will make the cut.

In the interest of holding public high schools and educators accountable and making sure that all high schools – not just the most coveted ones – are performing, I’m going to suggest moving the conversation toward judging and evaluating schools. In that contest, it’s important to know that New York’s not alone. Most U.S. high schools aren’t doing so well.

Judy Codding, president of America’s Choice, provided a host of useful questions and some data about U.S. high schools at a conference for journalists on high school reform. (In the interest of full disclosure, I helped run it, for the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media.)

Codding presented some frightening numbers about the state of U.S. high schools. For example:

• Two out of 10 students who leave middle school are not ready for a rigorous high school core curriculum

• Teachers indicate that they spend a quarter to a third of their time each year re-teaching what should have been learned in earlier grades

• Approximately 1.2 million students who enter ninth grade fail to graduate four years later

• While nationally 70% of students graduate from high school on time, just over half of African-American and Hispanic students meet that goal (NB: In New York City, the numbers for boys of color are even lower. -hz)

• Three out of four high school graduates who take a core curriculum are not prepared for entry-level college courses

• Nearly a third students entering post-secondary education need remedial courses in one or more subjects

Codding, who has served as a high school principal in communities from Pasadena, California to Scarsdale, New York, suggests asking for statistics and data on every tour. Some other tips:

• Ask how prepared the incoming ninth-graders are and what the school is doing to make sure they get prepared.

• Ask about the teachers. Are most of them brand new? Did the principal get a say in who he or she hired? How are they assigned to classes? Do the strongest teachers teach the brightest kids? Who works with the school’s most challenging population?

• Ask how student performance is tracked, and what policies and practices either need to be put in place or removed to improve student performance?

• Ask about the school’s four-year graduation rate (this information is also posted on the Insideschools’ profiles in the gray box with other helpful school statistics).

Sheer numbers dictate that not all of our children will be accepted into the top tier schools. Let’s push instead to improve the options within all city high schools. One way to do that is by visiting a larger variety of schools and asking lots of questions – and holding educators accountable for the answers.

Who doesn’t want more arts education for our city’s students? Parents as Arts Partners, via the Center for Arts Education, brings the creative process to thousands of kids and families every year. It’s a great way to get involved in the life of your child’s school and to make a real contribution to the school culture. It’s also a lot of fun.

Last year, PAAP grants funded fine arts and performing arts programs that spanned the gamut: think book-making and collage workshops, videography and architecture projects, and dance and folk-tale performances. Have a look here for successful programs.

Funding shortfalls mean that two-thirds fewer grants will be awarded this year than in years past. Grants of up to $3000 are available to 50 public schools provided they have never been CAE-funded in the past. The CAE website has tips, information and application materials; they’ll also host pre-application seminars starting later this month.

It’s safe bet that most readers saw yesterday’s New York Times magazine cover story, detailing the vast educational experiment underway in New Orleans. In a similar vein, today at noon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce the opening of 18 new charter schools, which are subject to stringent oversight (read, lots of student testing to measure achievement) but not obliged to meet city-mandated curriculum guidelines — or or bound by union rules, as most charter school faculties aren’t UFT members.

Some schools, like the KIPP charters and Excellence Charter School of Bedford Stuyvesant, have great reputations, while others flounder and struggle. We’d love to hear from readers whose kids attend charter schools; are you happy with what and how your kids are learning? What’s happening in your child’s classroom?

And in the spirit of behind-the-headlines illumination, see this tiny AP item. Teachers in a Texas district get the official ok to pack heat in the classroom — ostensibly, to discourage school violence. Anyone else get awfully nervous at this kind of news?

On Tuesday August 12 from 5pm to 8pm, State Senator Martin Connor and members of the State Democratic School Governance Task Force will convene at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, to hear parents speak about mayoral control and the state of the city schools.

The Task Force wants to hear about crowded or well-run schools; if parent voices are heard by school leaders; and what’s working — and what’s not, from parents’ point of view.

In terms of speaking truth to power, this is a pretty direct channel to sometimes-remote lawmakers. And since mayoral control lives or dies in Albany, it’s likely a meeting worth attending. We’ll be there, in any event, and report back on what unfolds.

District family advocates, positions newly created by the DOE’s Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy before the 2007-08 school year, will be fewer and farther between in 2008-09, according to a story in today’s Post.

Each district was to have at least two family advocates according to OFEA, over and above school-based parent coordinators. Now, it looks like more than half of the city’s 34 districts may have only one.

Calls to OFEA were inconclusive: Gwen Hopkins, Managing Director for Parent Leadership and Support, didn’t deny that cuts were planned, saying “many divisions have to weather this latest round of cuts.” Chief of Staff Melissa Harris put us on hold for a while, then came back to say she was “not at liberty” to respond to our questions.

Parents, if you’ve had interactions, positive or negative, with District Family Advocates, let us know. We’re interested in learning how thinning their ranks might affect everyday life at the city’s schools.

UPDATE: DOE spokesperson Melody Meyer provided additional details on the parent advocate cutbacks. Although some elementary/middle-school positions will be eliminated, she said, others will be added at the borough advocate level, in response to parent demand for high-school admissions guidance and other high-school information. Meyer could not say where cuts would occur, or whether the new borough advocates would receive formal training in the high-school admissions process.