As the new school year begins, we are launching an all-new Insideschools website with dozens of new school reviews, slideshows and videos to help New York City parents navigate a complex school system.

Help us flesh out our school portraits by sending photos (as JPEG attachments) and videos (with links to YouTube) to info@insideschools.org, or post your comments directly on the school profile page. We need your help to continue to provide our multi-dimensional portraits of the city’s schools.

We believe that you can’t judge a school by its standardized test scores alone. We believe education should develop character, citizenship, good work habits and self-control—qualities that the tests don’t measure. A recent New York Times column suggests life skills like motivation, focus and resilience are far better predictors of long-term success than high grades.

To see whether schools are trying to build these skills, we sit in on classes, visit the lunchroom and playground, and interview teachers and parents. We snap photos to capture the culture and atmosphere of a school. We ask parents to share their experiences by posting their comments about schools. We care about test scores, but we also care about the heart and soul of a school.