2013 test scores

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By Joyce Szuflita
For the next year, parents are going to be asking me why they should take a chance on schools that have less than 50% of kids performing at grade level.

Consider this: tests that were given before schools had even seen the curriculum (that the tests were based on) and were so poorly designed that many children couldn't possibly finish them are not worth considering.

You can't rely on the scores to determine a quality school. You are going to have to trust your eyes and your gut.

Read these for more reasons to ignore these stats.

What the drop in new standardized test scores really means - Washington Post

Shock Doctrine: five reasons not to trust the results of the new state tests

getting a school tour from a student

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By Joyce Szuflita
You must watch this video before you tour. That is your homework.

Once you have an idea about what you might want to be looking for you can contact the school; call the school's parent coordinator or front office, or check their website for a tour date. Take notes in the introductory talk about the school's programs, partnerships, educational focus, afterschool etc. Then you will all probably break up into groups to travel around the building and peek into the classrooms. Usually there will be a school administrator or parent who is leading the tours and sometime if you are lucky there will be a collection of 5th graders who will be there to answer questions as well.

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"kindergarten connect" conspiracy theories

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By Joyce Szuflita
It is beginning.

I am starting to hear the inevitable creative, crazy, uninformed ways to strategise the Kindergarten Connect process to totally mess up the ranking of your potential kindergarten options. Can we all stop and take a breath? If the city wanted to create an elaborate, passive-aggressive algorithm that was designed to screw you, why would they go to all this trouble? Couldn't they just do that on their own? Frankly, if they were that diabolically dedicated to ruining your life, the whole city would run way better. See this for what it is - a very blunt instrument that assigns seats with certain priorities by random. Do you feel lucky? The vast majority of zoned kids will have a seat in their zoned schools if they want them. Most of you looking for out of zone seats will be lucky if you just keep your heads and stay in the game until the last wait list placements are made.

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Basis Independent

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By Joyce Szuflita
There is a new STEM based Independent School opening in Brooklyn in fall of 2014. They are a for-profit K-12th grade program that will be housed in new construction in Red Hook on Sigourney Street.

They have an in interesting pedigree. They began as a charter school network in Arizona, Texas and DC and they have grown to become one of the most highly respected High School programs in the country according to US News and World Report. They have 14 charter programs and they are opening 2 new independent schools in Brooklyn and San Jose, Ca. The school is accepting applications for K-10th grade (there may be some "bridge classes" depending on enrollment). Tuition is $23,500. for all students. There may be merit scholarship (no needs based financial aid) opportunities in the second year and beyond.

The HS program is 3 years with a 4th year "Essentially, 12th grade Capstone courses transition students from student-centered learning to independent learning. Capstone students study subjects like Category Theory, Organic Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics, Differential Equations, and Game Theory. These courses delve deeply into advanced material and are roughly equivalent to upper-level college courses. The result is that BASIS students enter college prepared to excel in at least intermediate-level college work." - Basis Charter website

Specific admissions information is coming shortly, including applications. They don't have age cut off set yet. They are happy to talk to families on an individual basis about this. There isn't any open house information yet, but I will list it here and in the newsletter when they are scheduled. Student:teacher ratio, 15:1 (first to fourth grade); 25:1 in middle school and smaller again in high school.

giant sea change in kindergarten application procedures

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By Joyce Szuflita
The DoE announced late last week that they are changing the kindergarten application process up in a big way.
The old way that families would apply to various kindergarten programs was to physically go individually to each zoned school in and out of their district and apply in person (drag). They could also register for the charter and unzoned school lotteries and go through the city's g&t process all separately (what! something else to do!?). They would hear individually throughout the spring and summer and sometimes into the fall in a slow round robin as choices in individual schools shifted (get an offer here, get an offer there, offers offers everywhere). Families could get multiple offers to several schools (nice). It was a process that was handled on the local level and there was a lot of wiggle room (you don't have to decide which schools you liked best, you just waited for a better offer to trade up).

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nursery school hysteria

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By Joyce Szuflita
Here is the problem. There are many people in a small space who all want passionately, and they want it NOW. Their main source of information is other people in the same boat who have a lot of fear but no accurate information or experience.

Here is the result. Unnecessary fear, misunderstanding, rigidness that creates hysteria, promotes wrong headed decisions and sets up a climate that is unhealthy for the schools, the children and the parents. You are doing it to yourselves, people.

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st. crispin's day

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By Joyce Szuflita
Even though St. Crispin's Day isn't until Oct., when I think about the parents and students preparing to enter new kindergartens, middle schools or high schools in the fall...

I can't help but hear Shakespeare's rousing words from Henry V.

if you start to get cold feet over the summer, thinking about the possible challenges ahead, replace "going to battle against a huge French army" with "entering a kindergarten class in a brand new school" and imagine your Principal giving this, the granddaddy of all motivational speeches.

we happy few,

we band of brothers...

teachers salaries: public vs private

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By Joyce Szuflita
There was an interesting quiry on Park Slope Parents this month about teacher's salaries. It is a bit of an apples and oranges conversation. I have some links if you want to do more reading. It appears that public school teachers win out pretty clearly on salaries and benefits, but private school teachers may have some quality of life benefits (smaller class size and no state testing requirements). Both jobs are very challenging (no one has it easy!).

Here are some links, but you need to filter out the politics (right wing, anti union; left wing, pro union, etc.)

National Center for Education Statistics

ehow:money

edudemic

NY Times: Opinion

NYC DoE

salary.com

wordsworth for graduation

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This goes out to all parents of prekindergarteners, 5th graders, 8th graders and high school seniors:

--That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn no murmur; other gifts
Have followed, for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompence.

"Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth

making decisions

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By Joyce Szuflita
This is the time of year when parents agonize over decisions. April, May and occasionally in June, I will sit down at my desk with a cup of coffee and at 8am, put on my headphones, and take 15 and 30 min. calls all day until 6:30. There are some days in April when I feel like I am an air traffic controller with planes stacked up over O'Hare. Parents circling, looking for a safe landing...

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the 411 on Middle School for parents of babies

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By Joyce Szuflita
The information about middle school placements this week may wipe the g&t aggravation off the front pages for a couple days. There is a lot of fear and loathing around the ms choice process. Let me lay it out for you.

In suburbia, you have a zoned middle school and that is where your child will attend. We here in NYC have district-wide middle school choice. Some very few people will also have a zoned school associated with their address, but that doesn't mean that you don't get to participate. Middle school is 6,7 and 8th grade.

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new acting principal for ps 295

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By Joyce Szuflita
A lot of strong schools in several neighborhoods have been getting new principals for the past couple of years. Sometimes it is because the principal is retiring, sometimes they have been offered a position that is too good to pass up. Usually the school will do a search for the right candidate, inside their school as well as outside. Being a Assistant Principal is not like being "Vice President" or the first runner up for Miss America. They may be a likely candidate, but the job of Principal is not a natural career progression for everyone. More than half of the new principals below came from outside the school community.

Shout out to Lena Barbera at PS 20 in Ft. Greene, Eve Litwack at 107 in the South Slope, Rebecca Fagin at PS 29 in Cobble Hill, Eric Havlick at PS 154 in Windsor Terrace, and now Linda Mazza at PS 295 in Greenwood Heights.

I wrote about the process of getting a new principal in "When Your Beloved Principal Leaves". You can read more about Ms. Mazza on the school's website.

I loved this quote from an active PS 295 parent, "She really gets kids and understands how things work in the classroom--I'm so glad we'll be putting her experience and insight to work for the school as a whole (though, selfishly, I'm sorry to lose her as one of my son's classroom teachers!)"

what is up with red shirting

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By Joyce Szuflita
Red Shirting is the practice of holding late birthday kids back so that they benefit from being the oldest in the class. There is always heated debate about if it is really a good idea or not. My kids (girls) have late Nov. birthdays and I was clueless -and desperate to get them into free kindergarten. They started K as old fours and never looked back. In general, someone has to be the youngest, no matter what the cutoff date. It is very important that there not be too large an age spread in the k classroom. For a child who is appears to be fairly school ready, being younger isn't really an issue in my experience. The problem is that there are exceptions; very small or shy kids, or kids with other special needs who really may not be ready. I really feel for these families, who are not trying to give their kids some imaginary edge, but are really fighting for what is necessary for their children to thrive in their first academic year.

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The Diverse Schools Dilemma

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By Joyce Szuflita
I am reading "The Diverse Schools Dilemma: A Parent's Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools" by Michael J. Petrilli and I am riveted.

He is the executive vice president of the Thomas B.Fordam Institute a think tank focused on K-12 education policy, and executive editor of the journal "Education Next". He is also a father living just outside Washington DC in Tacoma Park, MD (self described as Berkeley East... I thought Park Slope was Berkeley East!). Looking for a socioeconomically and racially diverse school in a vibrant, urban neighborhood that is experiencing gentrification.

He works through the studies, but this is not a dry recitation of stats. He asks the questions everyone asks - in a nutshell - "Will a diverse school slow down my child?" The answer is, not if it is the right school and there are many pieces to the 'right school' puzzle. The first part of the book lays out the many pros and cons. The end of the book gives some guidance about to how to assess your own choices and second to the last chapter entitled: How to Gentrify a High Poverty School...interesting. I haven't finished yet, but my next blog will be about those last chapters and how they fit our situation here in Brooklyn. It is a terrific short read and well worth the $10 to upload to your new holiday Kindle.