In Ben's last post, he took a look at merit pay for teachers. Now, New York City is going to pioneer offering merit pay for students — offering kids cash prizes for academic achievement. Last...

High school students who are new to New York City or who are re-entering city schools after a time away, may register at special enrollment centers opened on Aug. 28 in all boroughs. The centers...

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...

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...

It's spring break so why are so many kids showing up at school this week? Test prep, that's why! Schools have sidelined regular lessons and ramped up test prep this year as the stakes for improved...

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...

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...

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...

My family's turn to provide afternoon snacks for my daughter’s 1st-grade class comes up next week, and I'm anxiously awaiting the backlash. When you make dietary choices for 23 New York City kids,...

Parents of children who turn four in 2012 have a few more days to apply for public school pre-kindergarten programs for next September. The Education Department extended the application deadline...

April is National Poetry Month. It's also the month many New York elementary schools hold benefit auctions to raise money. Inspired by both events, I composed a poem (much in the tradition of...

Kindergarten registration begins today and the early word is that some Manhattan and Brooklyn schools have waitlists for kindergarten, although they are somewhat shorter than last year. The...

"THAT'S IT!" It was the final straw, or rather, the final Skittle. I stood frozen in front of the principal's white board—it's the first thing you see when you arrive at my son's elementary...

Nearly a dozen new middle schools will open in the Bronx and Brooklyn next fall. New school applications are available now from elementary school guidance counselors in districts 7, 9, 10, 11, 12,...

Some Manhattan parents are scrambling to stop a plan to move 150 Harlem Success Academy 5th-graders into a building on the Upper West Side. Critics fear the plan could make the Success Academy...

A change in special education enrollment will likely have some already overcrowded schools coping with a large influx of kindergarten students in the fall. In past years, most special education...

I thought I was courting disaster when I took my four-year-old to Brooklyn's two-hour long pre-k information session Monday night after a full day at pre-school. But with the assistance of an extra...

At the March 3-4 Round 2 high school fair we collected information about open houses and auditions for some schools that still have space.  This is an incomplete list. Best to contact the schools'...

Vasilios Biniarls is a math teacher at a Queens middle school program for gifted students, The Academy at PS 122. He wrote to Insideschools after his name was published in the press as a "Below...

Parents applying to kindergarten for fall 2012 still have questions as the pre-registration period draws to a close on March 2. Here are a few more questions that parents asked at our kindergarten...

"Special needs children need not apply." There was no sign hanging on the main office at PS 289 in Bedford-Stuyvesant last week, but there may as well have been. Essence Louis says she was told...

If you missed our forum on "How to apply to public elementary school," you can watch it below. (Please bear with us for the 30 second ad before the video starts). If you'd like to see more events...

We’ve heard a lot of scary stories about kindergarten waitlists at very popular schools, but what about good schools that aren’t hopelessly oversubscribed? Insideschools has compiled a list of...

For some parents, applying to kindergarten has become a second job. They are zoned for schools that are failing, overcrowded or unsafe. They make phone calls, search websites and seek advice in...

On February 9, the Panel for Education Policy will meet to vote on the future of the 25 schools up for phase-out and closure. Hearings are held at the schools; in some cases parents and students...