You must be living under a rock if you haven't heard about the significant school budget cuts that the DOE made last week. In addition to the $324 million that schools will need to cut from their...

A 5th-grade boy raised his hand on our last middle school tour and posed a question that took everyone aback. It reminded grown-ups in the room what it must feel like to be 10 or 11 years old,...

Last night I went to the first of five public hearings held by the DOE about the proposed new system for handling pre-K and kindergarten admission. I was surprised that there were no more than...

With troubling news about school budgets percolating (more on this later), let's focus this morning on the city's exceptional students. Four students at Stuyvesant the most at a single school and...

Last week, the DOE released results of the Principal Satisfaction Survey that it said proved that principals are happy as clams. Of course, we know the truth is a little more nuanced, and as Diane...

Tonight, supporters of the Khalil Gibran International Academy are holding a "an evening of celebration and support" for the school, which continues to be troubled a semester after it opened....

Hey everyone! It's been quite some time since I last blogged, mainly because all has been quiet on the high school frontier for a while now. I am currently waiting for the results of the...

Would you wait in the cold at 4:30 a.m. to sign up for more classes with your elementary school science teacher? That's what parents fromPS 261 in Brooklyn did this past week when Carmelo Piazza,...

It always surprises me how my fellow students always seem to take much more moderate and pragmatic positions on many of today's more controversial education issues than I would expect. At last...

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling this summer raised our hopes that the city's schools would finally receive equitable and more adequate funding, but it's turning out not to be quite the banner...

If you care about the mayor's proposed 8th grade promotion policy, tonight's Panel for Educational Policy meeting is your first chance to make your voice heard. (You'll also be able to speak out on...

We all know that overzealous security guards can be a problem in schools, but I didn't think the issue extended to kindergartens. Apparently it does. When a 5 year old at PS 81 in Queens had a...

When choosing a middle school, what happens after hours is critical in a city where space is scarce and fields are threatened. Parents mulling middle school options spend a great deal of time...

Next year, kids at 10-15 schools will have more time in school if all goes according to plan for The After School Corporation, which at the chancellor's urging has bought into a national push to...

Looks like parents at PS 40 and PS 116 in Manhattan are taking the advice of Robert Pondiscio and the legions of parents who would do the same thing if they could find enough allies and boycotting...

Who knew I was already right when I hypothesized two weeks ago that the DOE was hoping to change the way teachers are evaluated? Well, besides Eduwonkette, who left a comment telling me so, and at...

Speaking of scaling down big plans, it looks like the state will be giving the city's schools $100 million less this year than originally planned in new money. Citing budget constraints, the state...

The DOE makes a lot of noise when it rolls out a new initiative but it does a good job of staying quiet when it scales them back. The Post reported this past weekend that the science test planned...

With so much to worry about on a daily basis gifted and talented screening, middle school admissions, the barrage of standardized testing  it can be easy to lose sight of the larger reality that...

More details are emerging on the mayor's new plan to "end social promotion" in 8th grade. According to the New York Times, the 8th grade rules are "stricter" than those already in place in grades...

What is our role, the students' role, in our society? As it stands now we are the constant object of the education discussion sentence. My English teacher told me (and mind you, this was last...

It's been a couple of years since the mayor added another grade to the list of those in which a failing grade on either state test requires a child to go through the holdover process, but in his...

In Insideschools' most recent college advice column, our counselor noted that guidance counselors in many high schools are responsible for so many students that they often are unable to give each...

Many of us know that kids with limited English proficiency have limited high school options. But it's a lot easier to understand what that means to immigrant kids and their families after reading...

Lunch at 8:59 a.m.? That's what some kids at Richmond Hill High School are scheduled for -- so they've taken to drinking water all day to feel full. In today's "On Education" column in the Times,...