The problem with public education in America isn’t that all schools are bad. The problem is that the quality is so uneven. In New York City, some lucky parents simply enroll their children in their neighborhood school with nothing more than proof of address. But many parents, unsatisfied with...
The Charter School For Law and Social Justice offers a rigorous curriculum focusing on Law and Social Justice to its Middle and High School Scholars. A direct pathway to high school for their middle school scholars and a college course sequence for their high school scholars to earn college...
Progress in America has never been a straight line, as President Barack Obama remarked after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. We zig and zag, sometimes forward, sometimes back. The way we teach American history is no different. We move ahead, and then fall back. Look at the zigs and...
Prospect Schools is a group of six (soon to be 8!) public charter schools located in Brooklyn. Founded in 2009, we educate students all the way from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Applications for the 2023-2024 school year are now open – and you're invited to apply. It only takes a minute to...
Last week, as I fried onions and garlic for the burritos I would soon share with my family, I propped my laptop on my yellow kitchen stool, turned up the volume and attended my third Community Education Council (CEC) meeting in a month. These took place online, at dinnertime, and represented...
Family Life Academy Charter Schools (FLACS) is a K-12 free public charter school network located in Highbridge, Mott Haven, and the Morrisania sections of the Bronx. At FLACS, all students are empowered to excel academically by ensuring that... Learning is rigorous, engaging, meaningful &...
Gracias a todos los que nos acompañaron en nuestro webinar, NYC 3-K, Pre-K, y Kindergarten Explicado, presentado el 14 de diciembre de 2022. Los videos del evento ya están disponibles en español y inglés. En este seminario web, proporcionamos una visión general del sistema de escuelas públicas...
Thank you to all who joined us for our webinar, NYC 3-K, Pre-K, and Kindergarten Explained, presented on December 14, 2022. Videos of the event are now available for viewing in English and Spanish. In this webinar, we provide an overview of the NYC public school system (districts and zones),...
The following is a paid message from Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York. A Catholic education is the stepping stone to your child’s future journey. Beyond an excellent education, New York Catholic schools instill family values, spirituality, and a sense of community. For many,...
If your child has special needs, applying to high school can be an especially daunting task. The information you need to make good choices may not be readily available on school websites or in the high school directory. While all schools are expected to offer special education services, the...
The following is a paid message from New Heights Academy Charter School. New Heights Academy Charter School is excited to share that they are STILL accepting applications for students entering the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades for the school year 2022-2023. New Heights Academy Charter School serves...
The following is a paid message from Ascend. Ascend is a network of K-12 public charter schools serving 5,800 students in 16 schools across Brooklyn. Ascend exists to serve every student—to help them embody their inherent excellence by providing rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock a...
If your child didn't get the kindergarten spot you asked for, try to stay calm. Waitlists at schools move over the spring and summer. We have seen it happen year after year. Children get offers on a rolling basis as families make final choices. Hang in there. The city sent out offers for...
Learning Black history is a year-round endeavor, but since this is Black History Month, let's kick it off with a few educational resources for the whole family. Reading Rockets: Watch interviews with award-winning Black authors and illustrators of children's books, learn about the history of...
Gracias a todos los que se unieron con nosotros en nuestro mini-seminario sobre la Admisión a las Escuelas Secundarias de la Ciudad de Nueva York, que presentamos el 18 de diciembre de 2021 en colaboración con la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York. Ya están disponibles los vídeos del evento en...
Thank you to all who joined us for our NYC High Schools Admissions webinar, which we presented on December 18, 2021 in partnership with the New York Public Library. Videos of the event are now available for viewing in English and Spanish. Topics covered include understanding the process, your...
Mi nombre es Gigi Hernández y estoy aquí para proporcionar ayuda a las familias hispanohablantes de InsideSchools. Vivo en Queens y soy un producto del sistema escolar público de NYC, como mi familia. InsideSchools es un recurso para ayudarle a navegar por las opciones de las escuelas públicas....
Dear Gigi, Good morning. I wanted to know if the school has buses for the kids. My son is starting 6th grade at a new school and I have a baby at home. If I drop the baby at daycare, and the 6th grader at his school, I'll be late to work. Can my older child get a yellow school...
Estimada Gigi, Buenos días. Quería saber si la escuela tiene autobuses para los niños. Mi hijo va a empezar sexto grado en una nueva escuela y tengo un bebé en casa. Si dejo al bebé en la guardería y al niño de sexto grado en su escuela, llegaré tarde al trabajo. ¿Puede mi hijo mayor tomar el...
Large high schools with enrollment of at least 1,000 as well as small, selective schools continue to be in high demand according to Department of Education (DOE) data provided to InsideSchools. Midwood High School once again took the top spot with 10,142 applicants, edging out Townsend Harris—a...
Last week 8th-graders finally received their high school placements. Some students are thrilled, or at least satisfied, with their placements. Some are not happy and wondering what to do next. We have advice for whichever category you're in. First, a little perspective. NYC has the largest...
Applying to kindergarten in the Bronx? Application season is open! Last year we updated all 200+ Bronx elementary school reviews. Listed here are a handful of good neighborhood schools, charters, and schools that accept children from a whole district or borough. This list is not exhaustive....
Our colleagues at the Center for New York City Affairs have published the fall 2020 edition of our popular guide for high school students who are applying to college and beginning their all-important quest for financial aid: FAFSA: The How-To Guide for High School Students (And the Adults Who...
A previous version of this story ran in October 2019. It has been updated with new information for October 2020. While the Department of Education has yet to finalize policies for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle, schools that typically screen for academic performance may have different admissions...
A previous version of this story ran in October 2019. It has been updated with new information for October 2020. While the Department of Education has yet to finalize policies for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle, schools that typically screen for academic performance may have different admissions...
A previous version of this story ran in October 2019. It has been updated with new information for October 2020. While the Department of Education has yet to finalize policies for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle, schools that typically screen for academic performance may have different admissions...
A previous version of this story ran in October 2019. It has been updated with new information for October 2020. While the Department of Education has yet to finalize policies for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle, schools that typically screen for academic performance may have different admissions...
This article originally appeared in Urban Matters, a publication by our colleagues at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. There can no longer be any doubt that New York City’s plan for reopening schools is falling apart. By insisting that school buildings be opened for...
We're thrilled to launch How to Support Online Learning at Home, a free online class for NYC families available on our new community platform, InsideSchools+. It was designed by InsideSchools editor in chief Dr. Tom Liam Lynch, a former education technology professor and parent of a soon-to-be...
Now more than ever, we need each other. That’s why we at InsideSchools have spent the summer creating a new space to support NYC families in what promises to be an unusual year. It’s called InsideSchools+. We created it because we know NYC families need a lot of support this year. And our team...
John, father of 3, who have attended the following schools: PS 87, PS 75, PS 112 M, PS 206 M, Neighborhood Charter School of Harlem, Booker T. Washington, Computer School, Frank Sinatra, and Stuyvesant. What does a high quality education look like to you? A good school offers a well-rounded...
This article originally appeared in Urban Matters, a publication by our colleagues at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. The most dramatic story of the just-ended New York City school year was, not surprisingly, the pandemic-required transition of 1.1 million students and...
Back in early March, we published a new vision for where we wanted to take InsideSchools in the next 1,000 days. Within a week, Covid-19 forced the entire NYC school system to shift to remote learning. So we switched gears too and, for three months, we have provided tons of new content meant to...
Ingrid, mother of 2 (ages 13 and 15) (Ingrid requested no photo or school names) What does a good education look like to you? Teachers and parents need to work together. I am in direct contact with every teacher so I can help my kids at home. At school, my daughter has a counselor who works...
Parents across the city have no doubt heard that there is a new survey out there that DOE officials would like them to complete. It’s called the “Return to School 2020” survey. I filled it out recently, only to realize that the survey questions might represent the best glimpse parents can get...
“Now more than ever” is a refrain you hear a lot these days. Now more than ever we need to rethink instruction, teach civics, create a culturally responsive curriculum, to name a few. Here’s one more: Now more than ever every school needs to provide a virtual tour. It’s not a new idea. We...
As #BlackLivesMatter protests flare up persistently throughout the country, teachers and families who had been mostly concerned about how to sufficiently complete the academic year online now have an unanticipated reality to address in school: widespread civic action in response to systemic...
Yvonne, mother of 4 (Girls Prep Bronx Elementary & Middle School, Success Academy) "Open communication with teachers is important to me. I want to be able to ask, 'What are the expectations? What does math look like at this grade level?'" "A lot of kids attend grades K-12 and still have to...
In an effort to make the school system more equitable, city officials have invested heavily in training teachers and administrators in culturally responsive-sustaining education or CRSE. Some of the core tenets of CRSE include honoring students’ cultural backgrounds, providing authentic...
Shanieka, mother of 1 (PS 217 Colonel David Marcus School) “My son has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and autism, so partnering with the school, being a parent advocate so he can thrive—academically, socially, emotionally, whatever other “-ly” there may be—is important to me. A...
According to a new survey by USA World News and Ipsos of over 500 K-12 teachers and 400 parents of K-12 students, 20% of teachers said they are unlikely to return to the classroom in September, concerning some that there’s a flood of resignations on the horizon. And 60% of parents said they would...
Sometimes, it can be hard to know just how well remote learning is going in the city. Parents might see what happens for their own children, but not for others. Stories emerge on both ends of the quality spectrum, with some teachers excelling in the new model while others hardly logging in at...
Parents of New York is an occasional post sharing the stories, ideas and perspectives of parents or caregivers with children in the New York City public schools. It is inspired by the popular Humans of New York website and book but is not connected to it. If you are interested in being...
When Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York would partner with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to “reimagine” education in the state, it took many by surprise. One contacted us expressing her concern: “I’m concerned about top-down administration and these kinds of decisions that I...
As schools begin planning for what will likely be an unusual fall, they will be under pressure to find creative ways to do more with less. That goes both for the business-as-usual learning and teaching, as well as innovations meant to propel schools toward the future. Of particular interest to me...
Originally published in the New York Daily News. Gov. Cuomo has enlisted the Gates Foundation to do a statewide reimagining of public education in light of what we’ve learned from the coronavirus pandemic. That will take time. Here’s an innovation we could implement right now: Create a citywide...
Next year’s high school application season will be unprecedented. High schools that screen applicants won’t be allowed to look at this year’s attendance records, and there will be no standardized test scores or numeric grades for the Spring 2020 semester. While some schools may adapt by using...
New York City is one of the world’s largest school districts. As officials and families grapple with what it means to reopen schools in September, there’s a lot to be learned not just from other urban districts or states, but also countries. In a report issued by UNESCO, the World Bank, UNICEF...
“We need to start teaching civics again,” is a common refrain these days. And for good reason. There’s nothing like a pandemic to help us realize the impact of our individual and collective actions as well as our responsibilities to ourselves and our communities. Recently we made the case that...
In a recent op-ed, teachers union leader Michael Mulgrew argued that schools will need significant health testing upgrades if they are to open in September. He wasn’t just musing generally. He was being specific: “In September, medical personnel need to be available at every schoolhouse door to...
According to the 2020 High School Directory, only 132 out of 427 high schools (not including charters) in the city offer instruction in statistics. Among them, 113 offer Advanced Placement (AP) statistics, which covers college-level material; the rest offer statistics or quantitative reasoning as...
