Many people do not yet know that there is a major reform coming to special education in New York City. Before leaving the city last June, Garth Harries, former Department of Education executive,...

Update 3/30/10: Letters have been mailedto the homes of 70,000 applicants, rather than given out at school, as a result of the March 26 Supreme Court ruling in the case which had delayed their...

In last week's poll, we asked how the kindergarten admissions process was treating you. Only eight percent of parents are "all set," while 54 percent share some level of concern. See our recent...

NYC Green Schools, a parent clearing house on school food and environmental issues, is holding a rally on March 18 from 4-6 p.m. at City Hall, to protest Chancellor's Regulation A-812. The...

Parents who want to serve on the Citywide Council on Special Education (CCSE), or the new Citywide Council on English Language Learners (CCELL) now have until March 19 to nominate themselves. The...

The 1,082 page, 20-year-old world history textbook sits on a desk next to the 1,114 page biology book. They weigh in at a good five pounds each. There’s no more room for them in the already...

The NY Post reports that 3,00 0 parents attended the third annual Harlem Education Fair, held Feb. 28 at the 369th Harlem Armory on 143rd Street. That's far short of the 10,000 parents event...

Q: My son is a junior and I thought that later this spring, and over the summer, we'd start driving to see some college campuses. Now he is saying, why bother, no one gets in anyway. He is friends...

On February 4, ARISE , a coalition of individuals and 24 organizations of which AFC is a member, issued a statement charging that the Department of Education's plan to reform special education does...

Parents packed into the District 3 CEC meeting on Jan. 20 to hear Department of Education officials address the impact of charter schools moving into public schools in Harlem, and overcrowding in...

I looked at the scattered notes and index cards covering my dining room table last week, struck by a distant but very real memory of my college freshman self during finals: Sprawled out at 6 a.m....

January 21 Update: Red Hook community members gathered before last night's public hearing atPS 15 to voice their discontent with the extension of PAVE Academy's co-location within PS 15. They...

A host of parental postings on this blog in recent weeks have included the following concern: “My child has so much homework and gets so little sleep that I feel really sorry for him/her.” Often,...

Recently, a friend and public school parent said to me that they were not sure they could expect their child to be known well in school, implying that such things cannot happen "in public school."...

At Arts & Letters, we are embarking on a month of preparation for our Quality Review. For those of you who do not know, theQuality Review stands next to the Progress Report Card, those...

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 0 1 385 2195 18 4 2695 11.1282 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> 0 0 0 <![endif]-->Imagine your kindergartner arrived at school...

Allison Gaines Pell is the founder and principal of a new, small public middle school called Arts & Letters, located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn, and is a public school...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the middle school fairs. Several open houses and tours later, my family is taking on the seemingly impossible task of ranking schools. Schools that I thought would be...

Tomorrow, Night Owl's kindergarten will finally receive the H1N1 vaccine, but for us, it's too little, too late. My daughters were both ill two weeks ago with what their doctor described as...

The Department of Education is proposing changes in existing policies, called Chancellor's Regulations, regarding promotion standards, and the way in which principals and assistant principals are...

Q:  My son is a junior at a high school in Queens.  He is an excellent student and would like to go to a prestigious college.  But his high school is huge and the college counselors don't have much...

Last night, I read my daughters Bread and Jam for Frances. My favorite part is the end, when Frances relishes every bite of her sophisticated boxed lunch (Lobster salad! Cream of tomato soup!) and...

Author's Note: All quotes below about my son's program are are from a recent article, "The ASD Nest Program" in "Teaching Exceptional Children," a peer-reviewed journal in the special education...

What advice can you give me for my 8th-grade son to prepare for Ivy League schools? His reply is "I'm only in 8th grade." But I worry as he is not in honors classes and I think he should be. He did...

Dear Judy, My son is just starting kindergarten in a K-8 school. If he is unhappy in a K-8 school can he apply to middle school elsewhere? Or if you are unhappy in a 6-12 school can you apply to...