I have been giving my popular High School talks for over 15 years. I did it in church halls and playspaces with my easel and bad “jokes” and the giant directory. Then Covid changed all that. The millennial children stepped up and got me online. You asked for a recording so you could watch more than once, on your own time. Once again the millennials to the rescue!
Read MoreNow that I have a Youtube channel, and refreshing my feed every 5 minutes. I am also now seeing other people’s interesting information. I thought I would give you a little survey of some worthwhile clips to view.
Read MoreThere is a lot of information to wade through in this process, so it is a good idea to stay chill and spread it over time. You can get swept into the hysteria of this process in the fall, but if you do a few things early, you can avoid that panicked feeling.
Read MoreThe DoE is now putting the random number in your MYSCHOOLS profile when you begin the process to apply for 3k or Prek. It is a hexadecimal 32 digit list of letters and numbers that kinda looks like your computer’s serial code. The only characters that really matter are the first two. The sequence goes from 0-9 and a-f. The “best” number is 00. The “worst” is ff. If you care to know, it is all explained here, including a chart that has estimated what % of people have a higher number than you.
SUPER IMPORTANT: Don’t freak out about your number. It is only used as a tie breaker when there are candidates of equal priority. Each time you apply for schools; for Prek, K, 6th grade and 9th grade, you get a different number. Each time you are on a wait-list, you get a different number.
DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS! IT IS NOT THE ORDER IN WHICH YOUR APPLICATION IS CONSIDERED. It is a tie breaker whenever there are candidates of equal priority. For example: all zoned families have the same priority for their zoned school, but they are ordered according to their random number within that group.
There are many factors that matter in this match, like, if you are continuing at a school that has 3K or Prk, if you have a sibling in the school, if you are in District for a Prek Center, or if you are in-zone for a DoE school. If you are placed in a program depends on a whole bunch of factors including your priorities if any, the number of seats available, and the popularity of the school, as well as your luck with the random number.
The best advice is to rank a robust and diverse list of programs. Make sure that there are lots of seats available to you that are not mostly prioritized for other people. Try to leverage any priorities that you can. Rank schools in true preference order.
If you are looking at the “numbers” on MY SCHOOLS and the totals don’t add up, it is because the City knows generally how many people decide to take other offers. More students are placed at a school than official seats available. When the inevitable happens and kids choose to go to Specialized HS or charter or private there are not big empty gaps. This is why the wait lists may not more a lot (or at all) at many popular schools.
Here is a sample from the Directory:
Millennium has 117 general ed seats and 33 SWD seats. Total 150 seats in the Freshmen class. They made offers to 190 students last year. Even though that is more than seats available, no one will be turned away. It is very likely that a bunch of those students will decide to go elsewhere. If Millennium is very popular this year, then its classrooms will be more full than normal, and people won’t move off the waitlist.
These numbers are particularly helpful when looking at 6-12th grade programs, because they will tell you how many people, who were not returning 8th graders, were offered seats.
Everyone calls the middle school and high school process a “lottery”. While there is a random number involved, it is really not a lottery. Calling it a lottery conjures up a linear process, probably involving a hat. Happily or not, this is way more complicated…and fascinating.
Read MoreSigh. 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.
Read MoreBy Joyce Szuflita
Gifted and Talented is back baby! and it is more opaque and imprecise than ever!! If you were interested in G&T for kindergarten in fall of 2023, that process is over and placements have been made. If you are interested in moving your child from their current program for a change at first through fourth grade for the fall of 2023, you have until May 15 to apply. You can only apply if your child has been identified by their course grades to be eligible and you would have received notice from the DoE. Read this to find out what you actually get and don’t get at G&T. This is a large city and there are neighborhoods with very different environments and needs. In this blog I am speaking to the families who live in northwest Brooklyn where there is a bounty of quality, stable, progressive elementary schools filled with talented educators.
By Joyce Szuflita
The 10th grade application process exists, but specific information about it is rarely seen on the DoE’s website. I have only found one mention of it under “who can apply?”. The answer is: A current eighth grade or first-time ninth grade student. That’s it! Here is the story of the 10th grade transfer.
By Joyce Szuflita
According to the DoE high school placements will be coming out through MY SCHOOLS on Thursday March 9. If your child took the SHSAT, the results of the test, and LaGuardia auditions as well as your main application results will be listed there. You will receive an email when your results are available. They often stagger the results because MY SCHOOLS would crash if everyone went on at the same time.
Here is the thing. Life is uncertain. You can prepare and calculate and hope. It is hard not to fall in love with one place or another, but you can’t engineer your placement. Your mission is to prepare your child (and yourself, cause you have worked hard for this!) There is no doubt that you will be disappointed for any number of reasons, possibly just because there has been so much effort and angst.
This is what I hope students will consider when they get their placement:
This school is all potential.
It will be what I make of it.
I don’t know those kids, but my new best friend for life is somewhere in that crowd.
My first love is probably in there too.
There will be a teacher that I will never forget in that building.
There will be some uncontrollable laughter.
There will be something that seemed nearly impossible that I will conquer.
I will likely be sorry to leave at the end of it all.
You can focus on what you desire, but you don’t always get it, and you might even be sorry if you did, because you would have missed the wonderful thing that appeared when you least expected it. Go out and find it.
By Joyce Szufltia
This is something that middle and high school parents have had to address this year. It is in the wind and kindergarten parents have begun to ask. The “random number” aka lottery number has always been with us. It has just never been revealed by the DoE. This year, the DoE revealed the “number” to older kids and if you ask them, they will tell you too. It doesn’t predict your fate, but it does give you a little insight that may help you manage expectations.
By Joyce Szuflita
The big change in kindergarten admissions this year is that G&T choices are included on your application along with your zoned school, un-zoned programs, out of zone programs, and dual language programs. You only get one placement from this list. This has been confirmed by the DoE.
There are two things that are important to understand.
Read MoreBy Joyce Szuflita
People get goofy when they hear the word, “application”. They assign all kinds of importance to it. They wonder if there are essay questions or tests. There are not.
Here is the deal.
Read MoreBy Joyce Szuflita
I have listed the schools with available programs for lower elementary here.
There is no Citywide or even district wide information about curriculum or expectations in these classrooms, because there is no different curriculum and there is no uniform approach. They say it is "accelerated" but what that means is something that the DoE will NEVER explain.
By Joyce Szuflita
You are not necessarily zoned to the elementary school that is closest to you. Almost everyone only has one zoned school. There are many zoned schools within a district, but you don’t have the same priority access to all of them. You are not guaranteed a seat in your zoned school at kindergarten. That is too strong a word, although the DoE will make every effort to place you in your zoned school and in most cases it is wildly likely that there will be a seat for you. Currently, because of Covid attrition and lower birth rates, all local schools are NOT over capacity and they have room for all zoned students and occasionally other families from outside of the zone.
By Joyce Szuflita
Kindergarten applications open Dec. 7 and the deadline is Jan. 20, 2023. The big change is that you will apply for zoned schools, unzoned programs, dual language programs AND Gifted and Talented programs ALL ON THE SAME application.
By Joyce Szuflita
I know you are freaking out. People who panic drown. Stop it. It is not as bad as you think.
By Joyce Szuflita
I just got a great email from Elissa Stein (High School 411) about priority groups and it inspired me to write this. If you use the code JOYCE10 she will give you a little discount on her subscription.
This process is not a lottery. It is a match and there are lots of wrinkles to it. Random numbers are in there, but they are not the only thing to consider.
Read MoreBy Joyce Szuflita
The HS Applicant : Seat ratios are data points that the City provides to give you an idea about how popular a school is. While not SUPER predictive of an outcome, it is all we have to give us a tiny matchstick in the dark.
By Joyce Szuflita
First to find each school’s Applicant:Seat ratios which can give an idea about how popular a school is.
Go to the MY SCHOOLS directory.
Put the name of the school in the search bar.
When the school page comes up, go all the way to the bottom and you will see one or more programs that you can apply to. Open the link on the program name.
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