Old School New School, a website about high school choice created by public school students went live this week. With colorful graphics and funny videos, it gives pointers to 8th graders about how to apply to high school, never an easy task in New York City. City teens are invited to the launch...
Dear Judy, Hi, I saw there was a bill passed to make kindergarten mandatory in NY, but never heard if it was signed into law. It also appeared to move the K cutoff date to December 1 from December 31, which could be a wonderful thing for my December boy. Is it happening? Kaye Dear Kaye, The...
Rising 8th-graders, who may be spending some of the summer prepping for the specialized high school exam, will have a chance to learn more about the nine specialized high schools at workshops on Tuesday and Thursday nights this week in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Department of Education officials,...
Drugstores and variety stores have already started displaying school supplies for September. To help those families that cannot afford to buy supplies, Volunteers of Americais launching its annual Operation Backpack, to collect backpacks and stuff them with school supplies for students who are...
Brooks is a success story: he is a smart and happy autistic kid who has conquered many of his pervasive challenges and continues to work long and hard on the ones that persist. But according to the Department of Education, my son is a failure. Because unless he has graduated to a less...
The State Education Department said today that standardized math and reading test scores for grades 3-8 will be released Tuesday, July 17. That's nearly a month earlier than 2011 when test data was released on Aug. 8, with parents able to access their children's scores online on Aug. 17. This...
My son did something last month that is apparently unacceptable among driven and high striving high school juniors these days: He failed. More specifically, he failed the trigonometry Regents by three points – after taking three Advanced Placement exams, six finals, three SAT sittings (one of...
Do you have any ideas about the most effective ways to identify and teach children who speak limited or no English? If so, the New York State Education Department would like to hear from you as it revises state regulations which define how schools offer services and English language instruction...
Dear Judy, We're moving into NYC from out of state with entering 9th and 10th graders. Can they take exams for specialized high schools or is that gate closed? Newcomers Dear Newcomers, Welcome to NYC! Yes – as newcomers to NYC your kids may take the Specialized High School Admission Test...
The City Council and Department of Education have launched a five-borough book drive for schools to heighten awareness and understanding in students about LGBT (lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgender) issues. A message from Christine Quinn's office says: "Access to these books can help prevent...
Q: I want to take my son to visit some colleges this summer, but he says it's pointless to go since there are no classes and he won't be able to judge what the school is really like. But I have more time off in the summer than in the fall when he wants to go – and anyway, won't that be too late?...
No graduation ceremony was held when my daughter’s class finished 1st grade, so I was not invited to give the commencement address. But if I had been the featured speaker, I would have said something like this: Thank you, Chancellor Walcott, for that kind introduction. Parents, principals,...
The Center for New York City Affairs and Insideschools.org today will present Inside Stats, a new high school scorecard designed to provide a well-rounded picture of NYC's high schools using available data. But, are there better ways to measure our schools? Clara Hemphill, senior editor at...
Five Manhattan moms started composting programs in their schools' cafeterias this year that saved 450 pounds of food waste from landfills daily and reduced the volume of cafeteria garbage by 85% in eight schools over four months. The parents, members of the District 3 Green Schools Group, were...
All children, ages 18 and under, may receive free breakfast and lunch at many schools, parks and pools beginning on June 28, the day after schools close for summer vacation. Breakfast will be served from 8 to 9:15 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Children participating in the Learn to...
If your 12-year-old is completing 7th grade this week, it's time for you to start thinking about high school. Here's what you and your rising 8th-grader can do this summer. Schools are handing out the 2012-2013 directory of high schools (now online) before summer vacation. If your child doesn't...
More students than ever are graduating high school in New York City. And many more are applying to—and attending—college. Yet very few of these young people ever complete a college degree. The number of graduates enrolling in CUNY surged to 25,600 in 2009 from 16,200 in 2002, a jump of 57...
Brooks loves baseball. The first and last thing he does every day is check the Mets score, and he could rival any grown-up rabid sports fan in terms of logging hours and hours of watching innings and innings (for better or worse). Unfortunately, he has a lot of genetics to overcome to actually...
Q. My first year of college, ten years ago, was pretty bad – I ended up with a 1.9 GPA. Then I went into the military, and took some courses during this time. I did well, and got a B+ average. Now I want to transfer into nursing school, but with the low grades from that first year, my average is...
Nothing dulls the luster of my club's reading room quite like a spot of bad news. So it was no surprise that, upon spying the recent Times article about “The $1 million PTA,” and seeing my youngling’s venerable institution mentioned prominently, I spat out the afternoon’s gin & tonic and...
Offer letters for public school pre-kindergarten slots went out this week and once again about one-third of the families of four-year-olds were disappointed. In a year when there were more applicants than ever -- 29,072 as compared to 28,815 in 2011 -- there were only 22,505 seats. About 70...
In 2011 the city began adding "college-readiness" scores to each high school's Progress Report, by calculating the number of students who graduated from high school prepared to do college-level work. While a passing score on the state Regents exams is 65, the city determined that students...
Laurie Crutcher is a parent and a program officer at TASC (The After School Corporation). Her story originally appeared on the TASC blog. My daughter Emilie, who just turned 11 years old, will be attending JHS 190 Russell Sage in the fall. One of the deciding factors in my family's decision to...
I read Alan Schwartz's frightening front page New York Times piece on the kind of Sunday night when I could have used a performance boost myself – something I'm sure lots of working parents feel in the waning weekend hours. Oh, for a rush of adrenaline to finish unwanted chores in full...
Dear Judy, My husband and I will be moving to Manhattan sometime this fall or winter (probably just after Christmas). Our oldest child will start kindergarten this fall. However, he was born in August 2006, so he will be six. The cutoff where we live is September 1 but they allow holding back if...
Pre-k acceptance letters are going out today via email and regular mail, and pre-registration runs from June 12 - 22. Getting a seat in a full-day program can save thousands of dollars in child care costs. It can also provide a great mix of play and learning. If you didn't get into the program...
While many boys his age were playing video games or sports, a 14-year-old from Bangladesh spent every Saturday afternoon since last summer studying math and English at Khan’s Tutorial, a test preparation center in Jamaica, Queens. Joydeep Baidya, an 8th grader in Intermediate School 238 in...
I'll be giving advice to 7th grade parents in Queens at a free workshop on "how to choose a high school" sponsored by City Councilman Mark Weprin. The date is Wednesday, June 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. The address is Middle School 74Q, 61-15 Oceania Street, Bayside. Insideschools reporters Laura...
Elections of community and citywide education council members face big changes if the Panel on Education Policy votes on June 26 to approve amendments to several Chancellor's Regulations. The most dramatic change is in Chancellor's Regulation D-140, which does away with the parent advisory vote....
I'll be one of the speakers at a workshop at New York University, Tuesday, June 5, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. to help parents figure out their elementary school options. The event at the Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Room, 803, is designed for NYU staff, but others may come as well. Maggie...
Dear Judy, My daughter is an 8th grader who has been on the honor roll since grammar school. I find it appalling that a child of her intelligence did not get accepted into a program of her choice, because it was decided that the schools were better off being run by lottery. My daughter is made...
Tom Allon may be a long shot in his quest to be the next mayor, but he has some fresh ideas about how to fix the city's schools. The publisher of Manhattan Media kicked off his campaign Wednesday with a speech at The New School that suggests a simple way to improve public schools: Help teachers...
I am a new immigrant living in New York City. I graduated from high school in Bangladesh in 2010, and now I want to apply to a college here. Is there any time limit about applying to college in the US after finishing high school? A: Don't worry! You are in good company in New York City. A large...
The New York Times recently ran the second piece in a series called A System Divided. The series aims to "...examine the changing racial distribution of students in New York City's public schools and its impact on their opportunities and achievements." The article, "Why Don't We Have Any White...
The refrain “I hate tests,” is nothing new in my household, but it’s usually met with an unsympathetic “that’s life – it’s a necessary evil” shrug. After last week’s SAT exam debacle that invalidated scores for 199 juniors from some 50 schools who took the May 5 SAT exam at Packer Collegiate...
New York’s Department of Education recently announced 24 city schools were given new names. About the same time, 5th-graders learned which middle school they were selected to attend. Combined, the two events might result in letters from DOE like this: Dear scholar (formerly known as...
With the permission of the chancellor, many New York City schools are hastily scheduling no classes on June 25 and 26, two of the final three days of the school year, choosing to convert unused “snow days” into two days of professional development for teachers. For the schools that choose this...
I'm happy to report that what loomed large for my son at school a few weeks ago had nothing to do with the mandatory standardized 3rd grade ELA and math tests, and everything to do with LearningSpring's annual talent show. To our relief, the tests were given the appropriately small amount of...
Not only are the state tests confusing for the kids. Now teachers say they can't figure out how to score them. Long-time principals and teachers say they have never witnessed the level of confusion that has broken out in scoring sessions for the state math and English tests this year. Principals...
Dear Judy, My son’s teacher said he might have to go to summer school so he won’t be left back. Does he have to go to summer school? I want to send him to camp. Annoyed parent. Dear Annoyed, Good news: No one is going to force you to send your son to summer school – attendance used to be...
It’s the end of teacher appreciation week: the DOE's number two guy, Shael Suransky, taught a class, Chancellor Walcott has been visiting schools, Mayor Bloomberg and countless others shared some #thankateacher love on Twitter, and maybe a few students brought apples to their teachers. We wonder,...
Fed up with multiple errors on state exams (including loudmouthed pineapples), some parents are planning to boycott "field tests" next week that will be used to design future exams. Students at more than 1,500 public and parochial schools in the city are among students at more than 4,000...
Q: I’m still in high school but I am wondering what I should major in. I would like to be a therapist or researcher or something along those lines I'm not sure which one. I really like helping people and definitely want to pursue this in college. But I don't know which job I specifically want to...
New York State’s standardized math and English exams for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades are over, except for the scoring and the remaining four years of Pearson’s $32 million contract to provide tests. Here’s a sample question that should be on a state exam but never will be: Read the following story....
With middle school acceptance letters due out in mid-May, parents of 5th graders may starting to feel anxious. Middle school, which once seems so far away, is hard at your heels. Will your child get in to where he wants to go? After say, three different tests, after the tours, after listening to...
Eighth and ninth graders who applied to high school last fall but were not matched to any school will learn the results of their new applications Friday, May 4, the Education Department said. In the first round of admissions, about 10 percent of 8th graders applying for 9th grade got no match,...
Jacqueline Wayans, assignment editor for Insideschools.org and a co-author of New York City's Best Public School Guides, has a new book out -- this one for children. If you were bright, talented and adored, would you trade it all in for the chance to be greater? That is the question posed in...
Some highly sought after high schools won't have to enroll more special education students this fall, even as others work to boost their numbers and meet city-mandated targets. Bard, Baruch and Eleanor Roosevelt, all in Manhattan, are among 27 high schools that are exempt from enrolling a...
Dear Judy, I am a nervous wreck. My son is going to 8th grade in September and I feel anxious about the whole high school admission process. I know schools like it if you attend their open houses or tours, but how do I find out about them? How do I find out enough about the schools to make a...
It's going to be a Wild West waiting game for anxious prospective pre-kindergarten parents this year. Even though acceptance letters don't go out until June 11, one Brooklyn school has already created an on-line waitlist in an effort to limit the chaos. "We have not received any guidance from...
NYCOSH 2012 Safety & Health Series - Labor/Community Workshop PCBs IN SCHOOLS Many NYC school buildings have light ballasts, caulks, and other building materials that contain potentially harmful PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Exposure to PCBs at sufficient concentrations and over...
