“If you didn’t apply for your job, would you get it?” one parent asked a D.O.E. official at a heated meeting about the students who have been placed in selective high schools without being screened. “We’re going to be receiving children who didn’t go through the process at all, while I’ve spent thousands of dollars on my daughter’s artistic development over the course of her life.”

Rising ninth graders tend to group themselves by academic performance on their high school applications, according to a new study. The findings also suggest that many students prefer high school close to home.

The computer has spoken and high school matches are out: Of the more than 63,000 eighth graders who applied, 90 percent received a match to one of their choices.

Researchers at Teacher’s College said New York City has failed to create diverse schools that would attract well-off white families seeking integrated classrooms.

The Education Department is collecting thousands of kindergarten applications ahead of the March 1 deadline. There may be an uptick in the number of families applying this year because all five-year-old New Yorkers are now required to attend school.

Reporter Beth Fertig reviews the findings of her Charters & Choices series on The Brian Lehrer Show. DOE data showed that charters have overall lower attrition rates than district schools but the debate remains open – and heated – about what kind of students attend charters and who is most likely to leave.

In our series on charter schools we’ve examined the role of discipline. Critics say charters with strict rules unfairly push out students or fail to communicate with families well. One school in Bedford Stuyvesant lost almost one of five of its students when parents thought its detention and disciplinary rules went too far. It has since toned down its approach.

Parent leaders in Ocean Hill-Brownsville have voted to eliminate zoning boundaries for kindergarten students next fall, allowing families to apply to all schools in the district regardless of where they live. The approach seems to be catching hold in disparate neighborhoods across the city. Read our interview with CEC 23 leader Erwin Charles.

See which middle schools are the top-rated based on their overall progress report scores. We’ve charted the top three in each school district in time for the school tours and admissions process.

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.