A tragic shooting by a gunman leaves scores dead at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, about 60 miles northeast of New York City. It appears to be the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

There are dueling approaches to school choice in northern Manhattan’s District 6: one would eliminate elementary school zones so families can apply to any school while another wants families to fight for improvements at the struggling schools so there isn’t such pressure on the better schools in the district.

A new state screening protocol for elementary schools goes into effect this month. Its stated goals are to catch reading and literacy problems earlier and possibly reduce referrals to special education.

Helpful news out of the city’s Education Department: It has released a directory of all elementary school programs in the public schools, just in time to help parents who are registering their 5-year-olds for kindergarten.

You have been checking the Web sites. Talking to friends. Maybe you have even been on a conga line of parents snaking through a classroom on an overcrowded school tour. But in your quiet moments, you recognize that you have almost no objective criteria for choosing the right school for your child. Peg Tyre, a longtime education journalist, will be taking your questions this week. To start off, here are five tips for identifying what makes a “good” school for your young child.

A Chicago-based teacher takes on the issue of healthy eating in the schools. She ate the same food as her students, and blogged about it, for a year. Speaking on WNYC, she encouraged school leaders to get involved and be vocal about what food is served at lunch.

An elementary school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is trying to give its students a proper physical education but it is failing to meet state standards. Listen to how teachers, parents, and students wrestle with meeting stringent requirements on a shoestring.

Callers to “The Brian Lehrer Show” share stories about gym in the schools after a city report says many middle and elementary schools fall far short of state gym standards. One caller says she supplements her daughter’s 45 minutes a week of gym with after-school classes. Another says charter schools are the worst offenders when it comes to providing time for physical education.

Your school’s 2011 Progress Report grade is now available on its SchoolBook page. The new grades have been added to the pages for all elementary and middle schools that were assessed this year.