1. District 3 zoned high school is now graded A and there is a space for my child!

2. Beacon is prioritized (like ElRo) for district 3 residents and now offers Mandarin

3. The process works!

I wish I knew that

1. Many students who take the SHSAT go to prep schools in Flushing, Queens (and other boroughs) starting in the summer of 6th grade, weekends in seventh grade, and the summer between seventh and eighth grade
2. Just because a school is rated an A or has a high graduation rate does not mean the school is preparing my kid for the rigors of college. Over 70 percent of those graduating high school are not prepared for college without remedial classes
3. There are only around 15 out of over 300 high schools with students leaving their school prepared for college with numbers of over 70 percent; eight of those are the specialized high schools, Laguardia, schools that give preference to students with 3 or 4's on 7th grade test, and a couple of schools that give preferences based on zone.

I think that for many students the process doesn't work. Many students will end up in schools that are not adequately preparing them for college.

The problem with this schools choice thing is obvious. It takes money, paid for by all parents in a particular district and gives to those few who can afford to send their kids to these other schools since it does not pay for the whole tuition. The other issue here is one of hypocracy.Since the schools in question are charters, they are not held to the same standards as the regular public schools and also do not have to offer services for language minority students or other students who are educationally challenged.It becomes a perfect place for snobby parents who don't want their students to rub elbows with minorites and thus, encourages white flight, further marginalizing the remaining public schools.

As a parent going through the high school choice process right now, I have a lot of thoughts. I'm pretty sure that my daughter will be one of the winners and will get into a good school. (Of course I don't know for sure, and that's nerve-wracking.) I don't doubt that Yvonne is right and the process isn't working for others. That's terrible. I wish all the kids had great options. But I would just add that having schools like Beacon, LaGuardia and Stuyvesant as options is one of the factors that keeps at least a few middle class parents in the system. And that's a good thing. Kids in schools with some middle class families do better than kids in schools with none.

I'm going through the middle school process at the moment and just returned home from attending a tour at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies which is not in my district. I was impressed with everything from the location (safe residential area) to the staff and principal to our student guides and teachers that we met and observed. The sad part is I don't really have a choice in applying to this school for my son since we don't reside in the district. The middle school application that I have for my son does NOT contain one school that I would LOVE for my son to attend and he missed taking the OLSAT's by 8-10 points. So I say that this process so far has been unfair and frustrating. Congrats to those that will be able to get in to the better schools and I feel your pain to those that won't. Regarding the town hall last night with Mr. Walcott, he simply defended his and the mayor's policies and did not shed any light on how to provide quality and fair education to all through these processes.

1. Make sure your child scores at least 1370 or above on their ELA and Math in 4th grade.
2. Visit potential schools in the 4th grade if not earlier.
3. Research and understand the entire process as early as possible to avoid the overwhelming feeling of helplessness once the process begins.

Thanks to everyone who attended last night's event, we had about 300 people in the audience at Pratt. When Brian Lehrer asked the parents in the room if they felt they had meaningful school choices, very few raised their hands to say "yes." This is why we've started this query.

Please share your SUCCESS stories. If you learned anything about how to navigate the city's Middle and High School applications process, please pass along your suggestions here for other parents. Can you name THREE things that will help other parents?

Think it over and add your responses. And check out the Schoolbook guides (on the far left side on the home page) for answers to other questions about the system.

Was anyone else concerned by the Chancellor's comments 1) that
there used to be only 5 options on the high school application
and now there are 12 and 2) that 75% of all students are
matched with their first choice (85% with first two choices)?

Excellent broadcast. Thank you for posting. This information must be shared more frequently withe the community since navigating the maze of school choice is confusing for a good percentage of NYC families. I have shared the link to the broadcast
on Facebook. We are 800+ strong black and Hispanic specialized high schools alumni who advocate for children and families to access gifted and talented programs. Looking forward to following this site for news and events.

Why are you liberals so dense??? All these questions can be answered with 2 word...big government.

We have three girls in better city-wide schools (NEST+M, Hunter, Stuyvesant). The oldest went to Anderson prior to Stuyvesant. We moved to the city three years ago, and have obviously been very lucky, especially stumbling into the process late and spending exactly zero dollars on prep programs (not counting about $20 for a SHSAT prep book at Barnes and Noble).

Here are the things that I would say helped us the most through the process:
1) Take an early interest - at least a year before it all starts for your child - and take the time to get to understand the process. The DoE website has lots of information, but of course it helps immensely to attend the free workshops and lectures (many in the evenings - my wife and I both work) that they offer. Talk to the admissions coordinator or parent coordinator at some of the better-ranked schools to understand the process - especially the timelines - better. I'd say that showing up in person is much better than calling, as you are more likely to get a few rare minutes of their time. I also recommend getting the booklets on each of the tests from the DoE, as they may have sample questions that you can use to gauge where your child may be and whether you might want to figure out some way to get additional help or prep.

2) Get to know the schools better. I particularly like Clara Hemphill's website (InsideSchools.org) and books, which give nice profiles of all the choice schools - you can see graduation rates, SAT or other standarized test scores, and many other stats. You can also get a good feel for homework burden, and the tyoes of students that might fare best at each school. Use the school websites as a resource as well. There are a few other resources like Greatschools.org that offer more information. And understanding where District priorities prevail may help if you are trying to choose whether to move into a district.

3) Understand the odds and prepare a backup plan. Most of the top schools end up admitting a very small percentage of students that apply. For example, for High School, something like 30,000 students list Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, or Brooklyn Tech as their top choice when taking the SHSAT, but these schools collectively admit about 3000 freshmen each year. There are also lots of great public options like Bard, Beacon and Townshend Harris, but some of these require individual tests, submission of grades, and/or preparation of a portfolio of your child's work. Attendance is always important - keep that in mind!! And overall, prepare to be in it for the long haul. There are waitlists and sometimes several rounds to see if your child will be admitted to their school of choice.

I hope that helps.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com...

For parents who reside in District 15, my three things would be this:
1. Some of the choices we have are quite good, so the process is not as stressful as it first appears.
2. When a school says it has had "3000 applicants for 60 spots" or something to that effect, they are not talking about applicants who list the school as their number one or number two choice, they are talking about applicants who have listed their school as a choice anywhere on the list of prioritized choices. Could be prioritized as choice one or choice 15. So the odds are not quite as bad as it sounds, as schools will often only take a kid who puts them down as a number one or two choice.
3. If your child had an unusual number of sick days in fourth grade because they had the flu or strep throat or something, the guidance counselor can check an option on their application: "Due to illness," but you have to ask the guidance counselor to do it, and you should provide documentation.
and a fourth thing: what you really should be worrying about is how the heck are you going to get your eleven year old to and from school every day if both parents work full time!

As a result of the questions posed by SchoolBook I wrote a short piece that became an editors pick. Please feel free to read it,
http://open.salon.com/blog/ny...

1. Do not visit every school in the City Of New York. It's about the right school for your child but location and realistic commuting are HUGE, if a school is too far/inconvenient it will affect your child.
2. Stay away from over dramatized parent conversations that will upset you...it's not a competition amongst parents, it's your child and family that matter.
3. The system is confusing, stick with facts, not gossip.
4. For middle school/high school let your child lead. Your input is vital, but in the end you're not going to be attending.

If it were just that simple (as 3 pieces of advice); if the school choice admissions process in NYC were really about knowing certain things... the irony of the process is that the DOE has created an almost comically long and ever shifting list of what parents should know... and all any of us 'survivors' of this crazy, complex and mostly arbitrary system for getting a seat at a decent or good school can tell others is, "be prepared for insanity, rejection, interminably long waits, school placements that are totally inappropriate".. etc etc...

I say this as a parent of 1. a daughter who went and graduated from Laguardia Arts, 2.a son who required and got (after we fought hard) for a private special education high school, and 3. a son in the citywide G&T on LES (NEST+m) since Kindergarten... so I think I know quite a bit, and shockingly, more than most teachers and guidance counselors around the city.

School choice was a product of the Bloomberg Educrats, the Klein sympathizers, and people at both DOE and City Hall who marched in step to lead parents and students into an even more complex and LESS diversified school admissions process overall than previous.

So: 3 basic pieces of advice : be ready to FIGHT, know that the DOE has put up nearly INSURMOUNTABLE barricades for MOST students to get to the few good schools - especially students of immigrants,and minorities -, and that you should NEVER take NO for an answer. Oh, and keep the faith. Eventually, hopefully, and probably, the DOE process as it is now will crash and burn of its own highly prejudicial and nearly impossible waste of money to support its own masses internally who made this process to begin with.

As a New York City current public high school student at LaGuardia Arts, I can say that:

1. Never set your (or have your child) set their heart on their first choice. I know people who wanted to go to a particular school, and it was a letdown when they realized that they didn't get in.

2. Keep your options open. Try to apply to as many schools as you can, but at the same time, make sure that you aren't wasting your time on a school that you wouldn't attend (e.g. travelling to tour Staten Island Tech when you live in the Bronx and detest science.)

3. If you or your child want to go to a specific school and it requires an interview, be sure to be enthusiastic. The interviewer will get the message if you are as down to earth as possible and show them why you deserve to be accepted.

I wish I'd known there would be so many good schools to choose from and not all of them selective. I wish I'd understood the different selection processes at the different schools more clearly. I think coming up with 5 schools is tough, but I easily came up with 3 that we would have been very happy with. Nevertheless it is a fraught process and heralds all sorts of changes in the family life, as well as the realization that your child is growing up. So it is emotional. I think we all need to respect that aspect of this process. Obviously the emotional aspect effect the way we feel as parent throughout the process (helpless for much of 5th grade, as we wait for the big, slow wheels of NYC DOE to move through the determination process) and how we feel when we get the final decision. It is a lot of change. It is hard. But much of life is. Ultimately I think an engaged parent can get their child into a good middle school through this process. I guess that is the most important thing for any parent to know.