In the latest weekly poll, we asked whether you thought there was too much focus on test preparation at your school. The majority of you said yes, with 33 percent reporting "way too much" test prep and 20 percent responding that while there may be too much test preparation, the system, not the...
According to the DOE, kindergarten letters were scheduled to go out to families from individual schools in mid-March. In fact, registration's already underway: It began on Monday, March 16 and continues through April 13, which is the last day of the April vacation week. From what we've heard,...
Citywide gifted and talented programs will open for the first time in Brooklyn and Queens this September, according to an announcement this afternoon by the Department of Education. Until today, "citywide" meant Manhattan -- now, it seems the DOE has expanded the definition to three...
Most 6th-graders aren't yet thinking about high school, but students who aspire to attend the city's most selective high schools, should start planning now. The Specialized High School Institute, a free 16-month, tutoring and test-prep program geared to help kids prepare for the specialized high...
Immigrant parents want to participate in their children's school, but too often experience barriers that make it difficult to do so, according to a 52-page report released today by Advocates for Children of New York. | | "There is a common misconception that immigrant parents are not...
It can't be pure coincidence that the DOE released a report highlighting gains made by English language learners less than a week after aboisterous mayoral-control hearingin the Bronx. And even though the report cites gains -- three times as many students tested as English-proficient in 2008 than...
Today in Albany, the New York State Education Department issued its annual list of schools and districts in need of improvement(SINIs and DINIs, in education jargon.) Because these schools receive Title I funds, they are accountable to No Child Left Behind benchmarks, and face consequences that...
Gotham Gazette Editor-in-Chief Gail Robinson takes a close look at the potentially thorny path from private parochial school to public charter school. She poses good questions about the fuzzy dividing lines between church and state, pointing out, for example, that public resources are already...
Starting next month, the DOE will test English Language Learnersat every grade level to assess their progress toward English proficiency -- measurements critical to each school's Progress Report, and to non-native speakers' success on Regents exams and eventual graduation. To date, the news is...
In keeping with the news of the week from Washington, we asked readers what they thought of charter schools. The short report: There's no groundswell of opinion -- in any direction. Click hereto see the results. About 30 percent of poll respondents support more charter development, while 23...
In April, just a few weeks away, all charter schools in New York City will hold lotteries to select their students for the 2009-2010 school year. Most of the new charter schools, however, still don't have a building. Of the 24 charter schools expected to open in fall 2009, only seven schools have...
This fall 24 charter schools are expected to open across New York City, bringing the total number of city charter schools to more than 100. Although classes don't begin until next August or September, parents must submit an application by April 1. If schools receive more applications than there...
Dear Judy,* We tried to register my son for kindergarten last week but were denied because of insufficient documentation. We were given a "tentative" registration but told to return with more documents ASAP. We live in the school's zone (we're not trying to "game" the system) but we're stumped...
Parents of children born in 2005 -- who will turn four in calendar year 2009 -- can find pre-kindergarten applications, information and school directoriesonline. (A curious disclaimer appears when you click on the 'applications' link, which says "The site you are about to visit may not be under...
With a snow day to start the week, our poll asking about outdoor play in bitter weather yielded a split response: A plurality of parents said "outside optional" made the most sense, nearly as many said that indoor play or watching a movie was better on winter days. A bunch of hardy souls think...
Pre-K information sessions got underway this week, for parents of children who will turn 4 in 2009. As noted in prior posts, the application will be online this year, and both the application and school directory will be available starting this Friday, March 6. There's another session tonight at...
A parent of a District 15 fifth-grader wrote us about middle-school tours, and the people who offer them. While experiences vary from person to person, parent OR child, this parent's observations about the human interactions that define a school's first impressions seemed to resonate. What's...
Building on a Post storythat ran on Monday, GothamSchoolsyesterday spelled out real concerns with the DOE's high-price-tag contract with the Accenture consulting firm for efforts ostensibly aimed at savings. Back in November, City Limits profiled small book packagers-- folks who develop and...
As every parent knows, it’s a blessing and a joy when your child is in a school she loves that also meets her educational needs. I’ve had that experience for my kids, and when I heard parents extolling Harlem Success Academycharter schools at their rally last Wednesday at PS 241, that same sense...
Parents bounced from table to table at a Harlem school fair on Saturday, filling up tote bags with pamphlets and eagerly asking about admissions requirements. Harlem has one of the highest concentrations of charter schools of any neighborhood in the country, and yet it seems that the demand for...
Since city students and teachers enjoyed their first snow day in five years, the Department of Education pushed back the first day of the state math test for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, from Tuesday to Wednesday. Middle school students will remain on schedule, taking the test on March 10...
Yesterday in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Mayor Bloomberg formally announced the opening of 42 new schools in September 2009. This brings the total number of new schools created during the Bloomberg-Klein administration to date to 333, or roughly one fifth of the city's schools. But particulars on a...
This past week, we asked parents what they'd do if they had the deep pockets Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised educators in federal-stimulus funds. More than 600 people voted - see the results here. Nearly half of the respondents wanted smaller classes (although, as a sizable vote...
DOE officials announced yesterday that applications for pre-K will be available on March 6th, online as well as on paper, for New York City parents. Children who will celebrate their fourth birthday in 2009 are eligible to apply, and directories will be on hand (also starting the 6th) at local...
Last night, hundreds of parents attended a forum dedicated to overcrowding issues at elementary and middle schools in Chelsea and the Village. The meeting, sponsored by the Community Education Council for District 2 and a series of elected officials, consisted of a speech by DOE official John...
Whatever you think of the myriad standardized state exams grade- and middle-schoolers take every year, the New York State Education Department wants to know -- and quickly, too. The state's Board of Regents is considering changes to the elementary and middle-school testing program, and is asking...
Insideschools.org has learned about an overlooked bit of bureaucrat-ese that deserves wide exposure -- and considerable challenge as well, especially given the Chancellor's recent endorsement of parent involvement -- see powertotheparents.org-- and his administration's long record of shutting...
"Hi. My name is Marni, and I am addicted to autism parent support groups." Is there a 12-step-program out there for me? And if so, do I have to start attending another series of monthly meetings to break my addiction to my current monthly meetings? It all started when Brooks first got...
Today marks the launch of the third annual school learning environment survey through which the DOE aims to hear from 1.5 million New Yorkers -- parents, students, teachers, and other schools professionals. Students in grades 6 through 12 are invited to make their opinions known, as are parents...
Harlem parents seeking alternatives to their zoned public schools will find options at the Harlem Education Fair on Saturday, Feb. 28. Unlike the city's Department of Education fairs, which only feature public schools, this fair, sponsored by Harlem Success Charter School network and several...
CEC veteran and regular contributor Jennifer Freeman takes nuts-and-bolts questions about CECs in advance of the upcoming CEC elections. Q: Why should people run for their Community Education Council? A: CEC members are advocates for parents on local, district-level education issues, such as...
Families who covet seats at lower Manhattan's prize elementary schools PS 234and PS 89are legion -- and, if the Times' trend story is any harbinger, their number will climb in the coming kindergarten seasons. Following DOE admissions protocol, both schools turn to lotteries if their applications...
President's week vacation is plenty popular among city parents -- nearly half said "don't change a thing" in our weekly poll. (Another quarter would trade away this break to start summer a week earlier.) This week, we wonder what you'd do with nearly two billion dollars to spend on city schools....
Earlier this week, the DOE released calendar guidelines for pre-kindergarten admissions. (Funny how these announcements often coincide with vacation season, when parents are more likely to miss the news... but never mind.) Children who will celebrate their fourth birthdays in 2009 are eligible...
Just a few weeks after Mayor Bloomberg warned that 14,000 city DOE workers, including teachers, might be laid off, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced - at a Brooklyn charter school - that federal funds would be allocated to states in time to avert such layoffs across the country. "We need...
Yesterday afternoon, Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matterssent out an email blast castigating the DOE's own class-size report for "increases ... at all grade levels" -- the biggest bump in the Bloomberg/Klein era, despite state funding specifically targeted at reducing the head count in the city's...
In a column unfortunately slated to run during the opening weekend of school vacation, NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof wakes up at last to the schoolyard bell: Education is the issue, and the key to unlocking the nation's potential. With $ 100 billion in stimulus fundingfor education in excess of...
Last night in Queens, parents packed into an overfull auditorium to have the chance to address Garth Harries, who has been charged with reviewing DOE's provision of special education services citywide -- despite his acknowledged lack of training as an educator or special educator. Harries, who...
Want to try your hand at a high-stakes challenge? Gotham Gazette'snew game gives players a taste of the budget bitters -- stimulus package, education funding, tax breaks, budget cuts, union give-backs, bridge tolls, and transit fares: It's all in your (virtual) control. Balance the budget and...
In June 2008, the Community Education Council of District 3 passed a resolution recommending that future CEC members be chosen through public elections, as had been true for local School Board members, in order to increase public participation and fairness. The DOE did not respond to our...
In yet another study that will stun savvy parents into a deep stupor, it's been 'exposed' that plenty of book-fair products aren't actual, legible books but playthings and decorations related to books -- connected by the slickly effective marketing campaigns that made the Harry Potter series...
While awaiting word from the city's specialized high schools this week, I found myself saying meaningless words to my anxious 13-year-old:``If we lived in the suburbs,'' I told him, "You and your classmates would never be going through all this drama. You would all just go to the neighborhood...
Borrowing a page from New York's senior senator's weekend playbook, the mayor on Saturday announced the DOE's intention to transform four languishing Catholic schools into New York City charter schools. The plan, endorsed by the mayor and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, appears to be a great potential...
In a hearing that began promptly at 10 a.m. and continued well into the afternoon -- with testimony scheduled from more than 65 witnesses, including heavy hitters like Learn NY/Harlem Children's ZoneGeoffrey Canada and New Visionspresident Robert Hughes -- the State Assembly Education Committee,...
More than 80 percent of the 700-plus readers who responded to our blog poll this week strongly objected to the proposal, advanced by the Mayor and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, tolay off thousands of city teachers. Much smaller segments expressed cautious concern (10 percent) or weren't much...
Eighth-graders across the city learned this afternoon whether they had been offered seats at the city's specialized high schools, including the eight testing schools, for which student take the Specialized High School Admissions Test, and LaGuardia High School, which requires auditions. Of...
This weekend, the DOE is hosting a fair for New High Schools, at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn -- but they still haven't published a complete, official list of all the new high schools that will open in September 2009, although representatives say there will be a handbook listing all the...
<!--StartFragment-->I’ve been asked to provide some basics about what Community Education Councils are, and what they do. New CEC elections for all 32 school districts are coming up soon; a future post will discuss the time line and procedure. But some CEC spots are open right now. To find...
Four weeks into the new kindergarten application process, parents and officials at some of the city's 800 elementary schools report a bumpy start. Parents say they are being turned away from schools that are not in their zone, and some schools aren't following Department of Education...
Historically, most New York City high school students have been eligible to earn Local or more rigorous Regents diplomas. But reforms set in motion over a decade ago by New York State Regents now require all high school students, beginning with the current freshman class, to meet the more...
DOE officials have announced the phase-out of Brandeis High School, one of the last remaining "comprehensive" -- ie, large and struggling -- high schools on the Upper West Side. Current students will be permitted to remain in school; Brandeis will graduate its last class in 2012. (It's not yet...
