(This is a guest post by Vitória Lunardi de Castro, the founder of LaG Portfolio Mentors, a nonprofit program that provides free art portfolio preparation to aspiring students who want to attend New York City art high schools. Originally from Brazil, Vitoria immigrated to the United States at a young age and has since made her mark as an artist and advocate for accessible arts education. She is currently a student at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.)  When I was in middle school, I fell In love with art. Perhaps it was the messiness of watercolor ..read more

Using a lottery system to determine high school admissions is creating turmoil and strife in Philadelphia, PA and prompting protests from students, parents, and teachers. New York City parents, who have already experienced the roller coaster ride of lottery high school admissions, offer their advice to cities like Philadelphia, as well as Alexandria, VA, San Francisco, CA, and other districts wrestling with how to balance equity alongside academic standards. Working together, perhaps America’s families can come up with solutions politicians have overlooked. NYC dad Darren Edwards predicts, “I ..read more

(This is a guest blog by Lisa Speransky, the founder of Ivy Tutors Network, a mission-driven private education company and proud vendor to department of education schools. For over 20 years, IVY has empowered students to succeed through personalized education and mentorship – because the right team makes all the difference!)  Each year, approximately 30,000 students take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) seeking admission to one of the prestigious specialized high schools, the crown jewels of the NYC public school system. These 8 schools, among them Stuyvesant, Bronx Sci ..read more

(This is a guest post by Amanda Reeves Fellner, Ed.D. Amanda is a mom of a first grader at Portfolio School and is committed to project-based learning as a method for elementary education. She is also a Lecturer in the Early Childhood Program at Teachers College, Columbia University where she works with pre-service teachers and studies children’s interactions in their school and outdoor environments.) Project Based Learning is a model of schooling that prioritizes hands-on curricular experiences where students explore academic concepts through larger projects. Students in project-based classro ..read more

(This is a guest post by Chad Alderman, NYC dad and the creator of ReadNotGuess.com, a program that sends short email lessons to help parents support and monitor their child’s early reading progress.) My 3rd grade son was reading to me recently when he came to the word “gargoyle.” Except he didn’t read it correctly. He read it as “ghost” and kept going. I stopped him and made him go back until he got it right.  Sometimes he’ll skip words entirely or add or subtract letters in ways that change the word’s meaning. Later on the same page, for example, he changed “county” to “country,” and it ..read more

(The author of this guest post wishes to remain anonymous.) The “Fame” school is not “gonna live forever”; that is, not if the current principal has anything to say about it. Since her arrival at LaGuardia High School in September 2019, Principal Yeou-Jey Vasconcelos has been on an anti-academics, anti-merit crusade, despite the alleged “dual mission” (arts and academics) of the school. When her attempts – without consulting with or even informing teachers or parents of them –  to simply eliminate AP classes failed in the wake of student and parent outrage, she tried workarounds:  C ..read more

(This is a guest post by Irina B., an NYC mom just starting on her public school journey.) My daughter, Ava, was offered a public pre-K spot at PS 347. We accepted our offer in May, got a call from the school, toured it and confirmed our acceptance with the below email From: noreply@myschools.nyc Subject: Confirmed: Offer Accepted Date: May 19, 2022 at 9:50:29 AM EDT Dear Family, Thank you for responding to your child’s Pre-K for All offer at THE 47 AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE & ENGLISH LOWER SCHOOL (02M347) Pre-K – Full Day (02M347PK).  This email confirms that you have accepted your chil ..read more

According to Chalkbeat: Overall, K-12 enrollment has dropped by 9.5% since the pandemic began. Officials are expecting 30,000 fewer K-12 students to be on the rolls this fall compared to last year.  In this most recent school year, three-quarters of schools saw fewer students, a Chalkbeat analysis previously found. Enrollment of Black and white students dropped by 7.5% each, while it dropped by 5% for Asian American students and 4.5% for Latino students…. In the 2020-21 school year, most grades in the city’s traditional public schools saw enrollment declines, except for eighth, 10th, 11th ..read more

It’s been a long, arduous, and stressful New York City public school admissions season. And, unfortunately, it’s not over yet. The Department of Education (DOE) has now pushed admissions to public Gifted & Talented programs for grades Kindergarten through 3rd to “late July.” Meanwhile, families of rising 9th graders are still hoping for a seat at the high-school of their dreams off the waitlist. But, as one mother found out, the process for receiving such an offer was quietly changed – after applications had already gone in! Below is her correspondence with the DOE, which forced them to ad ..read more

From Alina Adams: When my son, Gregory Wickham, convinced me to let him drop out of Stuyvesant High School and homeschool himself, one of my major conditions was that he do all of the work himself. Since then, due to both changes in the NYC public gifted, middle, and high school admissions system, and families’ general distrust of the education their children were getting thanks to so many of its failings going uncovered by the pandemic and remote/hybrid learning, parents have come to me asking for help with withdrawing their own kids and developing an alternative educational plan. I have to a ..read more