School Admissions Changes Causing 'Chaos'
This year the Department of Education changed its admissions process for pre-K’ers, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, and the shift means a lot of parents are grappling with the fact that their kids have been placed in schools far from home. About 3,000 parents, “including those in large swaths of Brownstone Brooklyn,” recently found out…
This year the Department of Education changed its admissions process for pre-K’ers, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, and the shift means a lot of parents are grappling with the fact that their kids have been placed in schools far from home. About 3,000 parents, “including those in large swaths of Brownstone Brooklyn,” recently found out their kids didn’t get into any of the schools they’d put down on application forms. Yesterday Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Councilman Bill de Blasio held a press conference to decry the new pre-K placement system, and Gotbaum said the changes “have had some chaotic consequences for parents.” The new admissions process is apparently affecting older kids, too. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn has been writing about how her child didn’t get in to any middle schools, apparently because of a DOE computer glitch. The blogger is describing the experience as traumatic: “And then [my daughter] heard me talking on the phone to the New York Times. She doesn’t know who I was talking to but she can tell that I am agitated, annoyed, on edge, shakey, not happy and so on.”
Pre-K Snafu Leads Brooklyn Parents To Protest at Tweed [Brooklyn Eagle]
Middle School SNAFU: My Daughter Isn’t On The List [OTBKB]
Photo by Kit & I.
There are so many factors involved in the choices made by a given person or group of people. There has been a shift to city living. Certain demographics (white, college educated, with a good % that stay at home – either because they can’t make enough to rationalize working or they don’t believe in it…) have moved to affordable areas and have contributed significantly to the school to benefit their families and their children – both their own sense of belonging and camraderie and wanting what’s best for their children given their resources. It’s good that people make different choices based on their lifestyle, needs, wants, etc. Resources would be depleted otherwise and the world would be a lot less interesting. The numbers of said demographic are so high now that I feel that a natural shift will have to occur to private (very limited) and spillover to burbs. This is not new – just amplified because of the current #s. City downturn is complicating things however. Hold the judgements.
8:31- not just middle class parents. working class and poor parents have also become involved and raised the bar for their children’s schools. I think it’s more realistic to say that it is parent involvement- of any class- that forces the board of ed to improve the schools.
6:57am, I don’t think that many people here are slamming private school patronizers, but just pointing out the reality that unless the middle class uses them, the public schools won’t improve. Private schools aren’t the problem, but if too many people choose to use them, the public schools just fall apart.
It just seems like you assume the schools were good first and then middle class parents came. That’s just not the case. A few middle class parents came, usually as a small group, with the intention of improving middling or poor schools. They worked hard to convince others to also take the chance. This happened in lower-income neighborhoods that the middle class could afford. But a few years later, those pioneers found themselves living in expensive, desirable school zones they could not have afforded. But it does happen that educated and involved people migrate to the areas of need, because that’s the way the so called “good” public schools became that way. So, it’s not fair just to dismiss that as a possibility.
However, you are 100% right about your lovely description of community and hopefully everyone can find one, however that occurs.
I cannot understand why a topic related to a bureaucratic nightmare due to DOE limitations veered slightly towards slamming Private School patronizers.
Private Schools are not the problem. In “desirable” school districts there are more than enough interested and mobilized parents involved – adding more from this demographic would certainly overwhelm the DOE. Ideally, more educated, involveed and confident people with the tools needed to get things done should migrate to the areas with more need. But this doesn’t happen because at the end of the day, we all need to get through our day in the community that supports us (whether it’s through like minded friends or the overwhelming need to have access to coffee shops and restaurants). A community is not only defined as a 10-20 square block radius, it can be whereever people come together with good feelings and intentions.
I am truly saddened by the Middle schoolers experience and I hope they find an answer that doesn’t make them feel as cynical towards the BOE as I am.
I kinda agree with 12:10. Boarding school was where I learned to smoke and why not to mix gin with peach schnappes. It was also where I learned that we were poor, which was sort of depressing.
Isn’t it a measure of failure when there is so much variance in the public schools? If the BOE did what it was supposed to, all the schools across the City should be much more uniform in terms of quality. Am I wrong in believing that the policy is to tolerate middling to poor schools in order to reinforce the good ones? I don’t want to see good schools brought down, but all schools brought up to the same level. Lately I get the feeling that because the charter and magnet schools are considered “sexy” they get supported at the expense of the system overall.
I know it’s a matter of limited economics and resources to some extent, but like 9:36 says, spots are not interchangeable and that says a lot right there.
Nokilissa, bxgrl:
The effectiveness of Pre-k is closely correlated to the quality of the pre-k program.
The Georgia initiative for universal pre-k, while well intentioned, was poorly implemented. Teachers were poorly paid and had little or no training in early education.
I highly recommend the documentary “The Promise of Preschool,” which looks at the discrepancies in the us system.
http://nieer.org/docs/?DocID=42
Claire-Schools don’t have room to physically expand. And finding space for new schools is also difficult. Also, from what I understand, no planning about school capacity was included in all the development going on around the city
Nokilissa, bxgrl, and others interested in what exactly makes a preK:
I agree with the poster who said that you cannot make a broad statement about preK effectiveness. I would also be careful about judging the entire worth of a program based on standardized test scores.
While I know little about HeadStart (other than that the Republicans have made it a favorite whipping boy) or Georgia preK, I do know that Brooklyn preK (and the private preschools that many here attend prior to that) vary greatly in what they offer their young attendees.
Here in NY, some schools feature progressive, play-based curricula, while others are already overly concerned with ABCs. It is my observation, and that of the progressive educational literature, that children learn best through active, engaged play. PreK, done well, can offer that.
And, back to the original topic of this thread…This variability btw programs at different schools is another reason why people are upset with the DOE about this enrollment mess; spots are NOT interchangeable when the programs differ so greatly.
That sounds interesting- how would you couple a good with a poorly performing school? besides trying to make things more fair, how would that be of an advantage to the schools? And is it better to worry about the lottery, instead of bringing up the quality of all the schools? One of the things that seem to really help improve a lot of the schools is strong parent involvement.
Poorly performing schools have less resources and are harder to improve, especially if in poor neighborhoods. Not because parents don’t want better for their children, but because they are not given the same advantages and resources. And let’s face it, in NYC middle ,working class and poor neighborhoods have it tougher. But if pro-active parents from other schools would come in to help, then it could became a win-win situation for all. Parents from schools that need help would have the benefit of the experience of those who succeeded in improving their kids schools, it would open dialogues across neighborhoods and communities, create a strong grass roots network of parents invested in all the schools and a better education environment for all kids. the more people involved, the louder their voice- and the harder politicians will have to listen.
Am I naive? Yeah, maybe. But I’ve seen an awful lot of grass roots movements take root and do amazing things. I never underestimate it.