I want to be proactive in high school admissions

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I want to be proactive in high school admissions

Sigh. I get it. I am that person. Unfortunately, the DoE doles out information on a need to know basis. They don’t help people who want to be proactive and it often ends up as an exercise in frustration. If you push too hard, you will absolutely make this much harder for yourself than it actually is. This is a particular challenge for private school families who are considering transitioning from private to public, who are coming from a different culture and are afraid of missing something.

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Lottery numbers will be revealed this season for middle school and high school placement.

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Lottery numbers will be revealed this season for middle school and high school placement.

By Joyce Szuflita
Counter to my speculation earlier this year (It happens), I have gotten conclusive confirmation from the Director of Enrollment that random numbers will be released before the application deadlines this fall.

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Algebra 1 and the path to Calculus

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Algebra 1 and the path to Calculus

By Joyce Szuflita
Thinking about the sequence of high school math classes and requirements for graduation and for college placement is confusing. It is something that I try to make parents aware of when thinking about vetting middle schools, just because this is all confusing and knowledge is power. None if it is a deal breaker, and thinking about what is appropriate in high school math is top of mind for elite colleges as well as high school and middle school educators.

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2021 High School Admissions Vol. 1

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2021 High School Admissions Vol. 1

By Joyce Szuflita
Read HS Admissions: Vol. 2 - it is more up to date.

The DoE announced the things we have all been waiting for yesterday (kind of).

Dates:
Registration for the SHSAT begins on Dec. 21. Deadline to register Jan. 15
The test will be administered at your current middle school beginning the week of Jan. 27
(no word on how it will work for kids in Independent or Charter schools yet), don't panic more details about how, and when will be release. Everyone will be attended to. For now just register for the test when you can.

High School application will open the week of Jan. 18
The Deadline will be the week of Feb. 22
There is usually a gap of about 3.5 months until placements are made.

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a review of the DoE new high school admissions videos

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a review of the DoE new high school admissions videos

By Joyce Szuflita
You can find the DoE’s new videos here
You can find the video page through this link, but the link doesn’t show up yet on the website. It is nice that they have divided these videos into bite sized chunks. Nothing earth shattering here, but they are clear and simple and it walks you through the process at a saunter. I will highlight some interesting things below.

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high school admissions in fall of 2020

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high school admissions in fall of 2020

By Joyce Szuflita
WARNING: EVERYTHING THAT YOU READ HERE IS CONJECTURE. I AM TOTALLY GUESSING.

So everyone has been asking me what is going to happen in the fall. Ummmm, I know that I am very confident in my pronouncements, but the thought that I would know what the virus, Governor, Mayor and Chancellor will do in Sept is a wonderful vote of confidence. I appreciate it.

The City is starting to address concerns and the Chancellor has scheduled Admission Engagement Sessions by borough to allow you to weigh in on the process.

Here is what we don’t know:

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Manhattan HS Fair 2019

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Manhattan HS Fair 2019

By Joyce Szuflita
Got to the Fair at about 10:30, and breezed right into the gym. It was pretty civilized. Relatively easy access. Not wildly noisy. It was hot, but thanks to the fan that I got at Stephen T. Mather, I stayed cool (and learned all about their craftsmanship and historical preservation program)! Many of the schools that I was looking for attended -although there are always some that don’t make it- which sucks. I was happily surprised that many of the schools that I talked to had start times around 8:45!

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Black Students and the SHSAT

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Black Students and the SHSAT

By Joyce Szuflita
This letter was sent to me by my good buddy Allison Shillingford. Allison is an African American mom who lives in Brooklyn. She runs a not for profit called, Navigate the Maze:
Navigate the Maze to Achievement, Inc. (NTMA) is a non-profit, educational enrichment program that prepares black students in Brooklyn for the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) and supports the students socially and academically while in high school.

In 2019, out of the 5,488 black students who took the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) to attend New York City specialized high schools, only 190 of the students received offers. In one of the worst years for black enrollment in specialized high schools, an emerging non-profit in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, demonstrates that black students are capable of passing the SHSAT.  Navigate the Maze to Achievement (NTMA) had 20 students take the SHSAT, and seven received offers. About 3.96% of Black students citywide passed the SHSAT, while 35% of NTMA students passed.  To put this into perspective, 1 in every 27 black students who received an offer to a specialized high school is an NTMA student.

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The myth of the "best school" busted. Glory hallelujah.

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The myth of the "best school" busted. Glory hallelujah.

By Joyce Szuflita
I have been sitting in my tiny office spinning with rage about the lazy conversations that I hear around school quality. Let me say right up front this blog is NOT about equity. I think schools are better when they are filled with diverse learners and students of every race and class. Period.

This is about something else: how people talk about the elite schools that everyone is focused on. I think that the underlying premise is false and until we understand the schools with a clear eye - WE CAN’T SOLVE THE ULTIMATE PROBLEM of “school quality” which is poverty.

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a couple things that i like about the high school choice process

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a couple things that i like about the high school choice process

By Joyce Szuflita
I was walking home from a consult the other day and I had a small epiphany. Those of you that go through this process may have a hard time agreeing with me. The process isn't for the faint of heart, but I had a moment of clarity when I just felt wildly excited by the variety of opportunity we have in the high schools in the city. For a moment, it felt like a treasure trove of wonders. I wish that I could hold on to that vision and share it - seeing the opportunity and not the fear and the hassle. The high school process is all of that- complicated, frustrating, scary, difficult - and astonishing.

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fall is the season of misinformation and conspiracies

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fall is the season of misinformation and conspiracies

By Joyce Szuflita
Misinformation:
It is becoming common practice during the NYC High School admissions process (and in District 15, also at the middle school level) for schools to widely and openly advise students to rank their school #1 on the application to gain a placement to that school. This is a blind match. The schools never know how a student has ranked them and it is in the student's best interest to rank schools in order of their true preference without being disadvantaged. When the schools advise families to rank them #1, they are giving misleading and frustrating advice that takes the student's power away and advantages the school.

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how does opt out affect admissions?

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how does opt out affect admissions?

By Joyce Szuflita
Everyone is asking me this. I can't have an opinion because I am not an expert on the tests neither am I in the back rooms of the schools you want to attend at middle school or high school. For several years, I have contacted many principals from popular, high performing district middle schools in the Districts that I cover.

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the clone wars

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the clone wars

by Joyce Szuflita
What's in a name? Granted NYC School Help is lame. If I had thought another minute, I probably could have come up with something better, but when you search "joyce" or "help! schools" I figured it would be likely to come up in the search. Lately there has been a rash of similarly named schools that have occasionally been scrambling my brain.

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