About 27,000 eighth graders and their parents will learn next Thursday, Feb. 5, whether they will be offered seats at the city's eight specialized high schools, based on the results of the SHSAT, or specialized high school admissions test. The test, administered in October and November, is long, hard, and challenging: Fewer than 6,000 students scored high enoughon the 2007 exam to earn offers to the specialized schools. Students who applied to LaGuardia High Schoolwill also hear news next week.

In fact, some students may hear good news from two (or even three) schools: Those who meet the SHSAT bar will also receive word of their non-specialized, general-ed high school placement, and have three weeks to choose which school to attend. Kids who auditioned for LaGuardia and were accepted may also hear from two other schools: The specialized test school that accepted them and their standard match.

Most students, though, didn't take the SHSAT, and won't hear news on their high-school placement until early March. In the meantime, the DOE is rolling out new high schools at a New High School fairin early February, where it plans to introduce at least a dozen new high schools in every borough save Staten Island. We'll have more on the new schools as particulars are available -- decisions are still being made, according to DOE sources, and final details have yet to be nailed down. The fair is slated for Feb. 7 and 8 at Clara Barton High Schoolin Brooklyn.

The timing of the New High School fair, before placements are known, means that many families that might be eager for new options a month down the road will still be waiting for first-round placement news. Will people who don't yet know they need new schools take the initiative to attend a new school fair? (In February? In Brooklyn? I'm skeptical.) The deadline for applying for a new school is February 26-- the very same day SHSAT and LaGuardia offers are due back to school counselors. That's a solid week before matches will be announced. How are families to know whether to pursue a new school if they don't yet have first-round results? But although the timing may be awkward, it's not new. Every year the DOE announces new high schools in February and high school placement decisions in March.