This editorial, written by Abigail Kramer, associate editor at the Center for NYC Affairs at The New School, home of Insideschools.org, was published in theNew York Daily News on June 28, 2014. When the mayor and the City Council agreed on a budget last week, they added $10 million to a voucher...
All children, ages 18 and under, may receive free breakfast and lunch every weekday from now until Aug. 29, 2014 at thousands of locations including schools, parks, pools, libraries and New York City Housing Authority complexes. Four mobile food trucks will operate seven days a week throughout...
Looking for a summer activity for your middle school student? Sign up now—before June 30—for one of the city's free enrichment programsjust announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio last week. Eligible students are between the ages of 11–13. Programs begin the first week of July and go through Aug. 22...
by Kendra Hurley, senior editor at the Center for NYC Affairs at The New School, home of Insideschools.org. This article appeared on SchoolBook on June 11, 2014 New York City recently approved over 10,000 new pre-k seats, closing in on its goal of providing about 53,000 4-year-olds with free,...
(This article originally appeared on DNAinfo.com by Rosa Golensohn) The teachers union and state lawmakers are pushing to overhaul admissions at the city's top public high schools, calling the lack of racial diversity at the schools "an embarrassment." In an effort to increase the enrollment of...
Brooklyn parent leaders look for political support on school diversity (via Chalkbeat New York) A group of parents in Brooklyn’s District 15 are calling on the city to make school diversity a new priority. Frustrated by statistics that show decreasing diversity in their district’s schools, and...
by Carrie Berg, a special education teacher at New Design Middle Schoolin Harlem. Unable to suggest alternative schools, teachers left with special ed reform dilemma (via Chalkbeat New York) In February, I sat down with a new student I’ll call Diego, a 15-year old boy who had just moved to New...
The city'spush to fill public school pre-kindergerten classrooms with 4-year-olds next fall seems to be working. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today that 97 percent of the half-day and full-day pre-k seats were filled after the first round of applications, as compared to 91 percent at this time...
Seventh-graders and their families now have a new tool to use for the somewhat daunting high school search process. Insideschools just launched an updated high school search site, accessible only from mobile phones and devices. Here are a few ways to use it: If you know the name of a school,...
Parents looking for a pre-kindergarten program for their four-year-olds now have a lot more options. The city is opening 10,400 new pre-k seats this September in community-based organizations, including childcare centers, libraries, public housing projects and Catholic and Jewish schools. This is...
Sixty percent of students who applied to gifted and talented (G&T) programs in 2014 received offers. That’s an improvement from 2013 when 54 percent of applicants received offers after enduring a rocky admissions process marred by scoring errors and a subsequent lawsuit filed by parents....
Sixty percent of students who applied to either a district or citywide Gifted and Talented (G&T) program in 2014 received offers. That’s an improvement over 2013 when 54 percent of applicants received offers after enduring a rocky admissions process marred by scoring errors and a subsequent...
It appears that many New York City public school principals have a great deal to say about this spring's standardized English tests for grades 3–8. Only they can't, because they are under a gag order. I wish we could at least informally do the same for students—and parents. No matter how you...
(This story first appeared on DNAInfo.com.) Mayor Bill de Blasio has promoted his pre-K expansion as a way to help working families — but programs that last only about six hours a day aren't long enough for many New Yorkers, parents and advocates said. Although the thousands of new public...
(This story first appeared on DNAInfo.com. Insideschools added a few clarifications based on our reporting.) Astoria resident Janet Piechota filled out kindergarten applications earlier this year, she hoped to win a spot for her daughter at P.S. 85, which has strong music programs and other...
(This article by Lydie Raschka, Insideschools writer and school reviewer, appears in the April 22, 2014 online edition of Education Week.) Recently I spent 10 weeks as a classroom teacher again, after a long hiatus. One night, I stayed late at school to prepare the shelves for our cross-genre...
Ask the College Counselor! Q: I can't decide where I should enroll in college. I was accepted by four schools, have decided against two of them, but now I can't decide between the other two. They are both great schools. I have visited them, but don't have enough time to go back for a second...
Five elementary schools have waitlists of more than 50 zoned children after the first round of kindergarten admissions and a few schools have more than doubled their waitlistsfrom this time last year, according to a list issued by the Department of Education today. Although the number of schools...
Queens will have more than 1,500 new pre-k seats this fall. Unfortunately, most are clustered in the southeast and other areas of Queens where there’s little demand — rather than in the very overcrowded northeast section. QUEENS Corona, Glendale and Elmhurst There are 90 new full-day pre-k...
Here are our recommendations for pre-kindergarten in the Bronx and Manhattan public schools, based on our school visits and the results of the city’s parent and teacher surveys. We didn’t include some very popular schools that receive hundreds of applications for a handful of seats. Instead, we...
Brooklyn is the city's largest borough and the one with most schools. Pre-kindergarten choices are as varied as the borough. In some areas of brownstone Brooklyn, pre-k programs don't meet the demand. Even parents who list 12 schools on their application will be disappointed. In other areas—such...
The city has taken a big step to scale back on anxiety over state tests. A new promotion policy takes the high-stakes out of testing for grades 3-8, at least when it comes to determining who gets promoted to the next grade and who must attend summer school. The Department of Education announced...
(This story first appeared on DNAInfo.com) More than 30 public elementary schools — including TriBeCa's top-ranked P.S. 234 and the Upper East Side's P.S. 59 — are set to participate in protests Friday to blast the state's standardized English exams. The planned protests by schools in...
Nearly one-third of the 14,600 rising kindergartners who sat for Gifted & Talented assessments in January and February found out today that they qualified for one of the city's district or citywide G&T programs. That's about six percent fewer than qualified in 2013, according to...
Some highly sought-after schools that lacked pre-kindergarten programs will now have them. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today the city will add more than 4,200 new full-day pre-k seats at 140 public schools in September, thanks to $300 million in funding from the state that was approved over...
In New York City, a new siting process paves the way for more charter schools (via Chalkbeat New York) The state budget bill’s expected passage includes several dramatic education policy shifts for the city, but perhaps none have been more fiercely debated than new provisions for providing new...
Amid the debate surrounding charter schools in the city, 15 new charter schools will be opening in the fall, adding to the 183 already operating in New York City. The majority of the new schools are part of established charter networks, including Success Academy, Achievement First and Ascend...
Q: My son is a senior in high school, so we have just finished with applications and testing and expensive test prep. Now I have to start worrying about my daughter, who will be entering ninth grade next year. When the New York Times magazine devotes its cover article to the "new" SAT test, it's...
What are an 8th grader's odds of getting accepted by the most popular New York City high school? Less than two percent at tiny Baruch College High School, which got a whopping 7,238 applications for just 111 seats this year. For the fourth year in the row, Baruch, which has a 100 percent...
High school students looking to transfer to a different school for 10th grade face tougher odds than applicants to 9th grade. This year, only 57 percent of the 4,425 students who applied for a different school for 10th grade received offers, as compared to 90 percent of 8th graders applying to...
A glimmer of hope for 8th graders who were rejected at their high school choices: Insideschools has learned that one-quarter of the kids who appealed their high school placements last year got a seat at one of the schools to which they originally applied. Of the 3,028 rising 9th-graders who...
This weekend – March 15 and 16 is the Round 2 fair in Manhattan for 8th and 9th graders who are still looking for a high school for next fall. You can meet school representatives and ask guidance counselors questions about your options. All 8th and 9th graders may apply again. Here are some...
High school acceptance letters went out this week and 90 percent of 8th graders who applied got one of their choices. Of those, 84 percent got one of their top five choices. But, once again, 10 percent of the more than 77,000 applicants didn't get accepted anywhere. If you were one of the the...
Caleb,* a 14-year-old middle school student in Flatbush, has a seizure disorder and learning delays — the aftereffects of a brain cyst he had removed when he was an infant. He sometimes writes backwards and reads six or seven years below grade level. He should be in a special class with 12...
Unhappy with your middle school choices? The Education Department announced 10 new middle schools are opening next September. New applications are going out this week to 5th graders. Families that are interested in applying must fill out and return the application by Wednesday, March 12. It won't...
Q: I AM SO LOST!! I am a high school sophomore and I am really starting to think about the whole college thing. Generally I'm shy and uncomfortable, but this year I joined Key Club (volunteering) and French Club (which consists of 3 people including myself). I want to find something in school...
by Joyce Szuflita Sometime during the week of March 10 8th-graders will get a letter telling them where they have been accepted to high school. Here's what normally happens: The kids at public schools are given sealed envelopes in school that hold the results of their SHSAT tests, whether...
If you’re a teen looking for a job this summer, consider applying to the Department of Youth and Community Development’s Summer Youth Employment Program. Young people between the ages of 14 and 24 are eligible to apply for this six-week summer employment program that runs between July and...
Some 68,000 parents of children born in 2009 used the new Kindergarten Connect system between Jan. 13 and Feb. 20 to apply to kindergarten for fall 2014, the Department of Education announced on Friday afternoon. This year approximately 74,000 five-year-olds are enrolled in kindergarten. Of...
We’ve just launched our new listing of free and low-cost summer and after-school programs to help you take advantage of the many extracurricular opportunities offered in the city. The listing highlights more than 100 free and low-cost programs, including 11 in math, 41 in science, 21 in art, 21...
With the Friday, Feb. 14 deadline looming for parents of kids born in 2009 to apply online to kindergarten, the Department of Education extended the Kindergarten Connect deadline to the following Thursday, Feb. 20. The decision to give parents additional time to register was announced Feb. 12 by...
Friday, Feb. 14 is the last day forparents of incoming kindergartners to apply to schools online via Kindergarten Connect. But parents who don't speak English, or don't have an email address, are finding it hard to connect, DNAInfo found. (This story first appeared on DNAInfo.com; by Amy Zimmer...
If you're looking for an elementary school for your child, you want to know: Do most parents and teachers recommend the school? Is it welcoming? How many students are in a kindergarten class? Is the atmosphere calm or rowdy? How do children do on standardized tests? Now, just in time for the...
Two weeks into the city's new online application system for children entering kindergarten in September, there is some confusion about how it works. We don't have all the answers to parents' questions, but here's what we know so far. Q: My child is turning five years old in 2014. How do I sign...
Q: My two sons applied to the same college Early Action, and they have both been accepted. Since they were EA applicants, they are not obligated to enroll at that college, and they have also applied to other schools. They don't know yet where they want to go, and will probably take a while to...
Figuring Out Financial Aid? Updated Guide Offers NYC Students Help with the FAFSA and Comparing Financial Aid Packages The Center for New York City Affairs, home to Insideschools, has published a second edition of its popular guide for high school students who are applying to college and...
Taking the Fear Out of Financial Aid: Making Higher Education Easier to Achieve for NYC Students This event, presented by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, home of Insideschools.org, is still happening tomorrow (Thursday) morning! Flooding at the university has not affected...
Q: A lot of my friends spent almost all winter break working on college applications that were due January 1. But I am applying to several schools that have "rolling" decisions, and some of them say they will take applications as late as April. So am I right to take it easy and get my...
What to expect from the new schools chancellor, Carmen Farina, just announced this morning at MS 51? More collaboration between schools--and less competition. Less emphasis on test scores. And more consistent efforts to improve the quality of teaching. The new chancellor is not against school...
Holidays are upon us! If you are one of the lucky ones to have vacation days along with your kids -- or if you are a high school student used to travelling around the city on your own, here are some ways to enjoy your time. Catch up on museums! This list of free museum days [PDF] was compiled...
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