Dear Judy, I'm a little lost as to what to pack for the first day of kindergarten (and subsequent ones). It's a half-day so I presume snack but not lunch and do they need pencils and supplies or are they provided? First time kindergarten parent Dear Parent: There is no standard answer to your...
The summer exam for newcomers to New York City seeking September entrance to one of the specialized high schools will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 31 rather than on Monday, Aug. 29 as originally scheduled. The Department of Education decided to reschedule the admissions test known as SHSAT "due to...
Your child is entitled to attend kindergarten the year he or she turns five. (If your child has his birthday in late September, October, November or December, he may begin school in September when he is still four.) For information on how to enroll, see our page on New to NYC or call the...
The first day of school can't come too soon for many New York City parents. Classes begin for most public school students on Sept. 8, which starts an 180-day school year, as mandated by the New York State Education Department. A typical school day starts at 8:40 a.m. and ends about six hours...
Children who scored at a level 4 on both the state reading and math exams in 3rd and 4th grade last May may now apply for district gifted and talented programs, although the number of seats available is "extremely limited" according to the Department of Education. Applications are due by Aug....
Does your child need special education services? A new, free26-page step-by guide will help you get the help he or she needs to be successful in school. The guide, prepared for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, offers an overview of legal rights, gives tips on how to get an evaluation, and...
Newcomers to New York City public schools, and students with unresolved placement problems, can bring their transcripts and other records needed for school registration to special enrollment centers beginning on Aug. 31. These temporary centers take the place of year-round borough enrollment...
You will certainly want to check out your neighborhood school before you enroll your child. You may also want to tour other schools that your child may be eligible to attend. On your visits, consider the following: Close to home or far away? Little kids tire easily, and a long commute to school...
Your 5-year-old is guaranteed a seat in kindergarten whenever you register—whether months in advance, the first day of school or even after the school year has begun. Most schools offer tours in November, December and January with applications due in January in 2016. In 2013, the Department of...
Q: My daughter is going to be a high school senior this fall. School hasn’t even started yet, and she is already stressed about college applications, re-taking the SAT, writing her essay, and all the rest of it. She is just one step below panic. How can I help her? A: In June, summer stretches...
A 16-month prep course designed to help low-income middle school students prepare for the city's elite specialized high schools will be cut nearly in half from 16 months to three beginning in 2012, sources tell Insideschools. The program is falling victim to "budget constraints" which will...
Wondering how your kid did on the state tests back in May? Individual math and English test scores for grades 3 to 8 should be available today on ARIS parent link. Summer school students will receive August promotion letters and can view test results next week, August 22, and schools will provide...
Sex ed in the city's schools made headlines last week when Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced it will be a required course for middle and high students. In a letter to principals, Walcott said he believed a policy to teach sex education was long overdue. "We have a responsibility to...
Yellow school buses will roll on September 8, the first day of school this year. If your children are among the 150,000 who ride the bus, or if you have a special needs child who is transported in a “mini-wagon,” you can expect a letter confirming the bus route and pick-up time by August 29th....
Dear Judy: My son starts his senior year in high school this September. Now that January Regents are re-instated, he will probably have only one or two classes left to acquire enough credits to graduate I have heard that even if he does not need the credits, he must attend full time. Is that...
City students’ math and reading test scores inched up slightly this year compared to 2010, when the state imposed tougher testing standards. At a press conference today, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced that, despite more difficult tests this year, the city’s 3rd...
Insideschools has a new website! We've redesigned not only to make the site visibly better and easier for our readers to use, but because the back end databases and software that fed all the different components of the site over the last decade had become outdated and unmanageable and had to be...
Mayor Bloomberg declared an end to tenure as an "automatic right" for New York City teachers, when he announced last week that only 58% of over 5,000 eligible teachers were approved for tenure this year. This number represents a sharp departure from just five years ago, when 99% of eligible...
New York State is changing the way it evaluates teachers and principals. Starting in the 2011-2012 school year, the state will use a new system to evaluate teacher effectiveness based on factors like classroom performance and student achievement on standardized tests. The new system will affect...
Q: My daughter is heading off to college this fall, and has already "met" her roommate on Facebook and through e-mail. They have many interests in common and are really looking forward to living together on campus. Now they are starting to discuss "who will bring what?" and we are a bit unsure...
Academic prep TheCenter for Leadership and College Preparation, affiliated with Bank Street College of Education, offers educational opportunities both to high-achieving students and to struggling students. The program serves kids in 5th-12th grades, giving them access to a wide range of...
TheCenter for Leadership and College Preparation, affiliated with Bank Street College of Education, offers educational opportunities both to high-achieving students and to struggling students. The program serves kids in 5th-12th grades, giving them access to a wide range of academic resources,...
Dear Judy, My son's middle school handed out report cards with errors. When the errors were pointed out they fixed them promptly. However, the incorrect info apparently had already gone into ARIS. The middle school also already sent over the incorrect report card to my son's new high school....
Newcomers to New York City, who are entering 9th or 10th grade in September, may register to take the summer exam for admission to one of the selective specialized high schools, and to audition for the arts school, LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts. From July...
Q: Is there any point to visiting colleges over the summer? Won't everything be closed? A: While it's best to visit a college while it's in full session, this is not always possible—especially if the college is far from your home. So summer is a peak time for campus visits, and colleges are...
Ed note: After two years of blogging from the pre-K and kindergarten corners of her school in Brooklyn, Claiborne Milde will also be "stepping up" and moving on to different endeavors. Here's her wrap-up of this pre-K year and the challenges that await next year's crop of newcomers to the public...
The nearly 9,000 4-year-olds who were shut out in the first round of pre-kindergarten applications for next year will have another chance to apply beginning on July 18. The Department of Education is compiling a new directory of schools, daycare centers, and community organizations that will...
Brooklyn New School already has large classes but most NYC teachers will be facing crowded classrooms next fall. Now that school is out, principals are wrestling with how to slice at least 2.5% from their already thin budgets. That will probably mean larger class sizes; fewer course offerings in...
Parents and guardians of students who live in District 3 on Manhattan's Upper West Side may apply to seven new elementary school magnet programs—if they submit applications by Friday, July 15, 2011. Magnet schools receive federal funding for three years to attract and engage students by creating...
UPDATE June 28: As expected, all the co-location proposals were ratified by PEP last night, as was the move of Khalil Gibran school to a new location, as a high school. See coverage on GothamSchools, including video of a confrontation between Hazel Dukes of the NAACP and charter school...
Just two days before the end of the school year, many students and their families are still waiting to find out where they will be attending school in September. High school appeal decisions are coming out today, according to the Department of Education. Eighth and 9th-grade students who were...
Liz Willen, editor of The Hechinger Report, writes High School Hustle. This is her final Middle School Muddle. While preparing for middle school graduation this week, I was reminded of my older son’s orientation five years ago. Parents and children were separated, somewhat symbolically. We sat...
If your older teen has not been successful in a traditional high school program this year, now is the time to be thinking about whether he should transfer to another school or program next fall. The Department of Education has opened many new programs for older students and earlier this year...
Three days before the deadline to register for gifted and talented programs, a few parents are uncertain about where their children have been admitted. Two parents told us they were not allowed to register at PS 748, a new school in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, even though they had received letters...
As the elementary school’s outdoor dance festival dissolved into a free-for-all waltz party, I hoisted my 5-year-old daughter into my arms and stumbled out a 1-2-3 cadence. It was a glorious June morning in New York, and I cherished the moment — part of that brief time when kids still want to...
Capping off days of protests against proposed budget cuts to the city's school system, the Alliance for Quality Education and other advocacy groups today delivered seven 50-foot petitions with more than 16,000 signatures to the mayor's office at City Hall. The petition calls for Mayor Bloomberg...
Students at the STEM citywide G&T program at PS 85 in Queens. UPDATE JULY 17: Placement letters to eligible students will be sent by email and mail after 6 p.m. today. A breakdown on the number of matches and placement offers by district for kindergarten and 1st grade will be available on...
DOE officials explain the new IEP to parents at a Manhattan info session. If you are the parent of a student with special needs you know that that everything about the IEP process is stressful and intimidating. So listen up, because the IEP (as the Individualized Education Program is known) is...
With summer vacation just days away, homework may be the last thing on families' minds....unless your child attends one of those schools that sends home assignments to do over July and August. For school administrators, however, summer is a planning time and in at least one school district in...
I sat with my mouth agape as the dentist poked around and asked a question. “It appears you have been grinding your teeth,” he said. “Do you know why?” There could have been many answers (high-pressure job, deadlines, raising teenagers) but I knew at once the real reason: My teeth are likely as...
New York City's high school graduation rate rose from 59% in 2009 to 61% in 2010, but only 35% of the graduates were prepared for college, the state and city reported today. The 2010 graduation rate represents students who entered high school in 2006 and graduated in June of 2010 with either a...
Dear Judy, Is the summer school program only for students who have not succeeded in the previous academic year? Can a student who wishes to study in advance attend summer school? I’'m a 9th grader, if I attend a 10th science/math course in summer school and complete the course, does that mean in...
More than 34,000 students in grades 3 to 8 scored so low on the 2011 standardized math and reading tests this spring that they will need to attend summer school July 5, the Department of Education reports. The number assigned to summer school has more than tripled since 2009, largely because the...
TheAlliance for Quality Education has collected more than 16,000 signatures on a petition against education budget cuts which they willdelivered to the mayor's office on Thursday, June 16 after a press conference at 12:45 p.m. on the steps of City Hall. Organizers are hoping for at least 20,000...
New York City public schools’ age cutoff has never made much sense to me. In the rest of the country (and at most NYC private schools) children must turn five by the fall, or even summer, to enter kindergarten. In our city, the December 31st cut-off means some kindergartners are four years old...
All schools are supposed to offer special education services, but the reality is some schools are much more accommodating than others. If your child has special needs, you want to make sure he goes to a school that will help him succeed. Questions to ask: Does your school have ICT (integrated...
All schools are supposed to offer special education services, but the reality is some schools are much more accommodating than others. If your child has special needs, you want to make sure he goes to a school that will help him succeed. Questions to ask: Does your school have ICT (integrated...
In what appears to be a record year for pre-Kindergarten applications, nearly one-third of the applicants were shut out in the first round of admissions, the Department of Education reports. Out of 28,815 applicants, 19,834 were offered seats today in public school programs but 8,981 were not....
New York City is blessed and cursed by the most extensive system of school choice in the country. Everyone must apply to high school. Choose carefully. Once you enroll, it’s really hard to transfer. The yearlong application process begins at the end of 7th grade, when children bring home a...
