As a parent of a 5th grader going through the middle school selection process, this article echoes same thoughts I've had regarding tours, need for flexible time off from work to accommodate, hunting for information, and the time & cost (not just money).

What I found frustrating is that access to information regarding tour dates (and even general info about school) varied greatly from school to school. For some schools, they are proactive and list specific dates for tours...and for some, even have direct links to register. Very helpful for busy parents who can quickly schedule appointments and instantly know available options. On the other hand, some schools (actually many) do not have tour date information on their website, which then requires either a call or email to the school; or by hearing from word-of-mouth from other parents.

Given that the middle school (and high school) tour and application process does not fluctuate significantly from year to year, this should be a basic standard that every school provides. If schools know months in advance that parents WILL be touring in Oct & Nov, then shouldn't they be proactively ready for streamlining information?

The tours also vary greatly in terms of access to seeing students during school hours. Some have evening only visits, while others have day visits. One middle school took parents on a quick 10 minute tour, but wasn't able to allow parents into classrooms because the students were taking assessment tests. Was surprised that this was scheduled for one of very few tour dates.

And it goes without saying that for middle school options, where choice is restricted to school/home district, that quality varies greatly from district to district. So much for equal access to quality schools. I also found that the G&T schools had significantly better facilities and huge discrepancies in access to sports, languages, and clubs. Again...another sign that students in NYC do not get equal access to education and extracurricular choices.

I completely agree with Amy Stuart Wells, as my experience has mirrored hers. If I didn't have a job with flexibility, my daughter's chances of getting into the school(s) of her choice would have been severely hampered. I feel bad for those students and parents whose circumstances do not allow them to attend midday tours and such.

This is true not only of the HS process but of the Kindergarten process as well. Thank goodness my husband has some degree of flexibility in his work and could attend school tours. There is also a significant amount of time that must be spent finding information about tours and calling busy schools many times to register for a coveted spot. As challenging as it was for us, I can only imagine how difficult and daunting this process must be for parents with limited English proficiency, without Internet access, or without time to invest in the process.

More evidence of how parents absolutely do not count and why we need to recover our right to vote directly for the people who run our schools, including the Emperor (now Bloomberg, should be a superintendent separately accountable to parents and voters for the school system.)
And please remember that at the elementary level, there is no real "choice" and that parent income plays a large part in the quality of local schools because of donations and political power. There's a reason that the Holliswood school, closely tied to the Weprin family, has more resources than PS 101 The School in the Gardens. If that's the kind of difference we see merely between the people of Jamaica Estates and Forest Hills Gardens, imagine the huge disparities in school funding and political largesse at schools in politically disconnected neighborhoods where parents don't have gobs of money to throw at the PTA.

I've been through all the variants of the nyc doe school choice process, from Pre-K through high school, and like Dr. Wells, I've been fortunate to work for an employer that affords some flexibility in schedule. While I am very grateful for the opportunity that choice can provide, it is nonetheless a challenging and stressful experience, and this for someone with sufficient resources to abide the schedules and deadlines required, to say nothing of the information gathering that needs to occur in order to make an informed choice. In a September 30, 2011 post on Schoolbook, researcher Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj points out that for many lower-income families for whom English is a second (or foreign) language, access to information (as well as access to networks of parents and/or educators with experience in the choice process and with the schools themselves) is often severely lacking; for these families, "choice" is a misnomer since they are not aware of the array of choices nor sufficiently well-informed of the process of choice itself. The "choice" process at the high school level must include not only the high schools themselves, and the DOE's menu of options, but also the efforts on the part of middle schools to orient parents to the high school choice process as well. The borough "fairs" and school tours often provided little more than a series of espousals about what the schools offered; it was very difficult to obtain much sense of the instructional climate. At a tour of one of the city's "elite" selective high schools, I was part of a cohort of parents whose tour experience consisted of being shown a series of empty and locked classrooms (we could look at the classroom doors)...I thought it a compelling metaphor for the school's outreach to parents, but also emblematic of how difficult it can be to get the kind of feedback that is valuable when trying to choose.

I was at the town hall meeting tonight. Chancellor Walcott, alas, has definitely drunk the Mayor's Koolaid and had absolutely nothing new to say. It's a shame that he didn't seem to realize that parents' input is worth considering. It was very disappointing.

As the parent of a high school sophomore, I feel like an extremely lucky parent to have threaded the needle of NYC school choice. I am so glad we are done with it!

School choice is great as long as there is also a great ZONED choices. I live in District 3, and currently the ZONED high school choice is either not graded or was failing. I like to compare this to cable TV....do I really need 1000 channel when all I want is the basic?

I wouldn't say that this data shows that it is an "urban legend" that charter schools “dump” or counsel out struggling students, often before testing season. The research is pretty clear that most of the attrition from charters are struggling students that are then transferred into the public school system. This indeed tends to raise the test scores of the charters. Meanwhile, it appears that even when students who transfer out of public schools are struggling, they tend to go to other public schools, either nearby or in other districts. Thus the concentration of struggling students grows in the public schools, while the achievement level of the kids who remain in charters increases.

I also wonder about how accurate and reliable this data is. Many charter schools start in August before the regular school year begins for public schools. What happens if a child is "counseled" out the first couple weeks of Kindergarten and transfers to a public school at the start of the regular school year, which seems to be fairly common? Would that child be counted as a charter transfer?

Thank you Beth!!! Data that shows charter schools do not dump kids they deem unteachable. Lets us not permit people to insert that fallacy into future discussions. Lets use facts, not emotional fiction to guide education policy.

You have another factual mistake here: you write: "Charter schools report attendance bimonthly, so any changes are processed as quickly as possible. There is also an end of the year reconciliation of funding.”Valentine said district schools follow similar formulas."

Charter schools are reimbursed for their enrollment several time per year; DOE schools aren't. Here it is from a principal: "For public elementary schools you get one adjustment based on the "snapshot" which is Oct 31. If kids come in after that you are out of luck..." Moreover, districts schools get mid-year cuts; which principals hate the most. Charters don't.