Letter Day 2010

This Thursday, Feb. 4 is letter day. The day that 8th grade students who took the SHSAT will receive word on their placement. If they did get a seat in one of the specialized high schools they will also get word about their placement in their "1 in 12" school. Envelopes will be distributed in the public schools. Families will have about two weeks to make their decisions. There are usually specialized high school tours set up early the following week to enable students to take a look and help them decide.  Private school families may have to wait a day or two depending on the efficiency of the distribution.

Students will be instructed to wait until they get home to open the letters, although most can't stand the temptation to rip them open the minute that they step outside the school building.Talk to your 8th grader and try and make the case for waiting until they get home, or at least find a private moment to open the letter. This is what they think is going to happen, "I'm getting into the school of my dreams and all of my friends will be as excited for me as I will be." Of course what happens is always different from our expectations. Often the news is great, but because it may not be what they expect there is disappointment. Their friends are so worried about their own situations everyone feels awful no matter what the outcome. There can be crying, or lying to save face and the students who are really thrilled can't show it without feeling like they are rubbing it in others faces. This sounds awful doesn't it? If they come home they can scream with delight or feel disappointed without humiliation, and you can hug them and give them perspective. Then, when they are composed they can call everyone and be their best selves. It can be an emotional day, good and not so good. It is not a bad idea to be ready for it.

If you have the option, you will need to make the decision in a timely manner. Before you return it to the guidance counselor, make a copy of the letter with your choice and keep it in a safe place.

If you are going to be waiting for your news in March, check out

The New School Fair on Saturday, February 6 and Sunday, February 7

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Emigrant Savings Bank Hall, 51 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

You will have an opportunity to see the new programs that are opening in the fall and submit a new application with a new programs included in the list. The Frank McCourt High School will be among them.

New high school choice forms and Specialized Round student decisions are due back to guidance counselors on Feb. 23

charter schools?

People feel strongly about charter programs. My role is to let parents understand all of their options. Charter schools are publicly funded programs. They are often housed in public school buildings. Sometimes the relationship is good, sometimes it is strained. It is good for parents to know if the school is going to have to move. This is very disruptive to any program.

Charter schools are not zoned. They choose their students by lottery. They are required to give priority in the lottery to families who live within the district where the school is located. When the school is new or under capacity they may often have extra seats and take children from outside of the district. There is no downside to registering for lots of charter programs. You don't need to rank them, or decide which one you like better until you are offered a seat. They often call families from their waitlist. Why not register for every one you like? Charter schools do not have Prek programs. They often begin in Kindergarten and may be K - 5, K - 8, K - 12, 6 - 8, 6 - 12, or 9 -12 programs.

Charter schools are not under the DOE's jurisdiction so they may use a different curriculum, different hours and hire teachers in different ways. They still have to take the same NY state tests and they answer to their own individual Board of Trustees to maintain their charter.

The Brooklyn New School and the Brooklyn Children's School accept their students by lottery but they are NOT charter schools. These schools do have prek programs. To search for Charters in a NYC Charter School directory.

Spanish dual language at PS 46

If you live in Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill (and even if you don't) you should check out the new Spanish dual language program at PS 46, Edward Blum School, in district 13. Karyn Nicholson, their energetic new principal, is reaching out to the community. The staff which has long experience with bilingual education is well suited to put a dual language program into place. They started this fall with preK, k and first grade dual language classrooms. If the program proves popular there would be room for a second class on a grade. They are assessing students who are interested in the program for language proficiency (they are looking for both English and Spanish speakers) as well as looking for strong learners who will be able to handle the challenge of the dual language program. The k class I saw was focused and engaged and reading the Spanish lesson easily. The hallways are lined with excellent and varied writer's workshop published pieces.

Ms. Nicholson has a strong vision for the school and there are good facilities and lots of enrichment in place for her to build on. The school has a beautiful Robin Hood library. There is an art classroom and teacher with a science focus and a second art room/teacher with a math focus. There is also an extensive music program. I was very impressed with the science teacher, who is clearly transferring his enthusiasm for his subject to his students.

The parent coordinator, Cecilia Lopez (347) 563-5323 has a open door policy and her parent's room is open from 8 to 4. Contact her to find out about the next open house which will be scheduled shortly. I will also list it in the newsletter.

Middle School Interviews

The middle school interview season is here. Why interview? The schools want to get an idea of what the child is like, more than just a number and a name. It is hard for many parents to imagine their 10 or 11 year old managing to speak coherently to a strange adult. We all know that when things get "awkward" for a tween (my kids' favorite word for any situation that is the least bit cringy) they either get silly or silent. Parents need to know that these lovely teachers and parents who are conducting the interviews have seen HUNDREDS of 11 year olds. After a while the silly and the silent is so normal that they can surely see through it.

This is what you should tell your child:

• The interviewers are really interested in learning about you. So tell them about what you love in a way that will make them see a picture in their heads. Remember the "because" in your answer.

• Tell them about why you are interested in their school.There are no wrong answers.

• If you are in a group you have to be considerate of the other kids when they are talking and find a way to politely add what you want to say. If you are silent they will not learn enough about you. If you are silly they may misjudge what a good student you will be.

If you think that your child could use some help getting used to talking to a stranger, I can help them with relaxation, presentation and converstation.

redshirting

I answered a question on Park Slope Parents about a child with a late fall birthday whose parents were interested in waiting a year for kindergarten. It seemed to be helpful so I am posting it here.

The age cut off in NYC is Dec. 31. Any child that turns five years from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 is eligible for kindergarten. Some parents feel that their children are not ready for kindergarten at five and want to wait to enroll them in public school. Starting a six year old child in kindergarten is not completely the parent’s choice. The principals may entertain the conversation if the child has a very late birthday (like the last week in Dec.). The principals are not trying to be rigid (they really care about your child’s education) they have seen a lot of children and there are reasons to keep the kids within a years range of each other. Someone has to be the youngest. The chancellor’s regulations are vague. A child is required to attend the appropriate class at 6 years old. Since the age cutoff is Dec. 31 it implies first grade. Kindergarten is the first academic year (no longer play-based) in public school but it is not a mandated grade. It is common practice for there to be enough seats in the k classes for everyone in the zone, but the desire to keep classes small makes it hard to find seats in very sought after schools when you are not in the regular age cohort.

It is up to the principal if there will be a seat in k at 6 years. It may also depend on available seats. Trying to work the private and public school admissions together is a very difficult thing. The problem starts with the different age cut off dates and then you have to contend with the different program notification dates (when they tell you that you have been accepted). The  Chancellor’s regulations do say that if you are entering the NYC public school system from another city or a private school that the child will be placed in the appropriate grade. They will not arbitrarily move a child ahead a grade just because of their age. For example, if a child is 7 years and has completed k they won’t place him in second grade just because 7 years is when the rest of the city’s children are in second grade.

There are no age exceptions made for public school prek programs or gifted and talented.

test scores are only a small piece of the puzzle

How do you judge a school?  To start you can look at the test scores. These may come in the form of the School Progress Reports (the DOE's flawed number crunching), the more nuanced but not fool-proof Quality Reviews or the number rankings given by the national websites. The black and white reality of a simple number or letter ranking is that it predicts how well your child will be able to complete a standardized test, not the quality of their education. The scores are often clung to as a measure of quality by prospective parents, but the tests are scorned by parents whose children already attend school. Assessments need to be made and there has to some kind of accountability, but the richest learning doesn't happen within test prep and the score can be a smoke screen.

You can read reviews on insideschools, study the school's website and get individual parent comments on the list serves. You can tour the schools and stand outside at 2:45 for dismissal and eyeball the parents picking up their kids. All of these are pieces of the puzzle, but none of them will give you the the kind of information about the right school for your child except the school tour that you take with your own eyes.

If you are an informed consumer, armed with the test scores and comments by others, the tour should seal the deal or expose the school as a bad fit and be the biggest factor when deciding.  Even though many parents feel that there is safety in numbers (the most popular schools must be the "best") there are many quality programs laboring in obscurity (often with smaller class sizes). If you can tour several schools, you will start to see similarities and differences. Many of the differences will be comparing apples and oranges, an old building compared to a newer building, a variety of enrichment classes compared to a fabulous afterschool, etc.

Keep your mind open. Look for exciting classrooms instead of the highest test scores. Does what you see in the classroom make sense with the school's scores. Do they seem realistic? Is the work on the bulletin board suspiciously flawless or all the same? Remember to trust your instincts. There are no guarantees in life but it is very possible to get a wonderful public education in the NYC public schools.

looking online for a good school

There are a number of sites that show information on local schools. They often have links to real estate sites that show properties in the area.

insideschools.org is above all my favorite. It is a local non profit run by Advocates for Children. It has a tremendous reach and depth and the first thing any parent worried about schools should do is sign up for their newsletter alerts and send them a little tax deductible thank you for the incredibly good work that they do. (I am not affiliated with them, I just love them.) You can "Ask Judy" a question, browse their forum, check their calendar, and most importantly read their reviews. The data at the beginning of the review (test scores and numbers) are updated every year and any change in principal or location is added right away. Because they review every school in the city, some reviews are a couple years old, check the dates at the end of the review. Remember that all parents that comment on schools are on a mission. They either love the school or hate it and it is difficult to get an objective reading of how much the parent body as a whole feels. If you have trouble searching for the school by name, also try searching by zip and age level, one of these two ways always gets results.

schools.nyc.gov is the Dept. of Education's website. There are individual school pages here (go to find a school). You can find copies of state and city reports on each school under the "statistics" tab on their school page. I recommend browsing the menu on the homepage, often publications, calendars and procedures are listed here or downloadable as pdf files. This is a very large deep and sometimes confusing website. If you find a page that you like, bookmark it so that you can find it again.

https://nyccharterschools.org/ is a searchable NYC database of charter schools

greatschools.org is a national site where you can search by city, or address, district etc. The search tool is clumsy at best and it is difficult to browse. The comparison of local schools also gives a weirdly haphazard and incomplete mix and sometimes elementary, middle and high schools are incorporated in the same list. For a national site that doesn't really address the complexities of the NYC school system, it is the best by far. They give a number ranking to the schools that is mostly based on test scores which can be misleading and are only a small indication of school's quality. There are parent comments and lots of general articles.

schooldigger.com searches by zip or address or city and gives a clear map of public elementary choices, but their ranking system is out of date and based on scores. They have very clear links to real estate if you are looking for that.

All the others are just lists of addresses.

how to find your zoned school

I have written a more recent blog on this topic here.

There are a couple easy ways to find out what elementary school zone you live within. You can call the school and ask them. You can call 311 and give them your address and they will tell you everything you need to know. You can go to the DOE website. In the middle of the homepage and choose "find by address". You will be directed to a map that shows your address and your zoned school. Some websites show maps of the zones. These are generally accurate but you need to be careful particularly if you live on a border street, because you may be on the wrong side of the street or at the wrong address for the school that you want.

The school zone is the small (weirdly shaped) catchment area around a school. The district is the larger area that encompasses many school zones. An example of a district is Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Both neighborhoods make up district 14. The district boundaries come into play at the middle school level. Many districts no longer have zoned middle schools. They have district wide choice. This means that if you live within the district you and your child will tour and rank schools in the fall of 5th grade. The schools will also look at many aspects of your child and there will be a computer match. At the high school level there is city wide choice.

At all levels there are also a number of other choices, charter schools, gifted and talented programs, magnet schools and schools that are below capacity and may accept children from outside of their zone or district. I give an overview of many of these choices and the registration procedures for elementary school in my "Intro to Public School: Prek and Kindergarten" talks. I speak about middle school and high school in the spring and summer.

international school of brooklyn’s new address

International School of Brooklyn is moving to Carroll Gardens in the fall of 2010. They have much larger digs at 477 Court St. in Carroll Gardens (that is the corner of Nelson St.). The whole school will be moving to the new location and they anticipate enrollment to be 180 students in nursery through 4 th grade. They will have enough space at this location to continue to grow each year through middle school which is wonderful news for parents interested in a strong language program. They will launch their middle school in 2012. International School of Brooklyn is an independent school following the International Baccalaureate curriculum that has language immersion beginning at age three in Spanish or French.

With the popular dual language French program at PS 58 on Carroll St. and Hands on World just down Court St. Carroll Gardens is beginning to have a distinctly French flavor.

New Charter School in Prospect Lefferts Gardens

I just got the exciting news from Hawthorne Street that the proposed District 17 Lefferts Gardens Charter School that will be partnering with the Botanic Garden has the go ahead for fall of 2010. They are waiting on a location but the school hopes to be housed close to the park. Whether you are pro charter or not, this is another option for local families and it answers a need in the community.

"the school will feature an environmental-science program that spans across disciplines. The over-arching idea is that the learning will be "experiential"—meaning that teachers will try to connect what goes on inside the classroom (and out) to children's daily lives. The school plans on working with the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the Prospect Park Audubon Center as part of its curriculum." - Hawthorne Street