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NYC public schools... just mentioning it makes you shake your head. There is so much wrong with the entire system, but as with most things, there are exceptions. Aside from the specialized high schools, what are some decent NYC high schools? I'm more interested in personal experience, because the report cards and grades schools receive can, and often are achieved by cheating for students, lowering standards, and putting on quite a show when it comes time to be reviewed.
What are some good NYC high schools, with challenging curriculum, a diverse student body including Asian and White students, and seasoned teachers who didn't choose teaching NYC kids as a fallback during a recession, while still earning a masters degree...
NYC public schools... just mentioning it makes you shake your head. There is so much wrong with the entire system, but as with most things, there are exceptions. Aside from the specialized high schools, what are some decent NYC high schools? I'm more interested in personal experience, because the report cards and grades schools receive can, and often are achieved by cheating for students, lowering standards, and putting on quite a show when it comes time to be reviewed.
What are some good NYC high schools, with challenging curriculum, a diverse student body including Asian and White students, and seasoned teachers who didn't choose teaching NYC kids as a fallback during a recession, while still earning a masters degree...
@ Nei, Edward Murrow is definitely a good high school... Other ones that have always had a good reputation are Newcomers High School for those coming into NYC from other countries (It's a great school and very diverse)... Also Cardozo, Bayside and a couple of new ones that have a good reputation so far are the two that opened up in Forest Hills near Glendale/Woodhaven... The campus is called Metropolitan Campus but so far I've only read good reviews about it...
Additionally, this whole myth about NYC public schools being a toilet bowl is outdated... When I went to High School in the early 90s, that was a toilet bowl... Fights even in schools that at the time weren't considered bad in comparison with so many others in bad areas were common on a daily basis... For the most part, when I went to high school what you had was a number of tenured teachers who were sick and fed up with the rising number of undisciplined unruly kids who didn't have any parental guidance to smack them around if they misbehaved either because they were missing a mother or father, or the parents just didn't care... This coupled with the fact that the process of becoming a teacher in those times was much easier than now led to a generation of teachers who were either unqualified or disinterested which was why the entire public school system in almost any poor/working class and even in some cases middle class areas was poor...
Nowadays, as bad as we claim students are in comparison with previous generations, the reality is that while there are tons of kids who lack the motivation that previous generations had due to their being coddled and taken care of to the point of spoiled by their parents, the behavior problem is not what it used to be... Teachers nowadays in comparison with those who became teachers in the 90s and early 2000s are much more qualified (and I frankly don't care what any tenured teacher whose been teaching for 10-15 years says... I've seen and heard it from tenured teachers myself working in the school setting for the last 4 years now) than those in recent years... Of course there are plenty of exceptions but there are still too many that fit the unqualified bill...
I look at the public educational system now as being on the upswing... You still have your old school dedicated staff who have been working in these schools for 30-40 years who have never stopped caring (Mr. Pulera in Grover Cleveland High School is an example that comes to mind... He's been teaching at this school for over 40 years now and still going strong)... You also have a growing number of new teachers who are working on changing the poor image that the public school system currently has... Schools like Grover Cleveland, John Adams, Williamsburg Campus (all four of the charter schools), Flushing High School, LIC HS are all worlds better than how they used to be and it's about time that the stigma that has plagued these schools for so long slowly begins to fade...
I don't think there are any. I went to Bayside in the early 90s and was in their Honors program which at the time, I thought was a path to an Ivy League college. I ended up at SUNY because of lack of financial aid (scholarships at top 10 unis i was accepted to didn't cover my full tuition and I didn't want any loans for college). In the end, the valedictorian from my HS went off to Harvard and a few others made it to other top places like Michigan and Duke, Wesleyan, Wellesley, etc but I found out the hard way my education wasn't great when I started freshman college courses (my college roommate was already well versed in Greek and Latin from her basic HS in Dix Hills and had 12 AP credits whereas Bayside only offered 4 AP courses in the entire school).
What drags the NYC high schools down are the fellow students and generally the peer pressure not to view education as "cool". I don't know how much that has improved. At the time, schools like Bayside, Cardozo, Townsend Harris were considered top notch. Now, I wouldn't send my kids there if I lived in Queens.
Because students don't graduate well versed in Latin and Greek and all go to Ivy League schools does not mean it's a bad high school. The OP wasn't asking what non-specialized high schools are the best in the country.
@ Nei, Edward Murrow is definitely a good high school... Other ones that have always had a good reputation are Newcomers High School for those coming into NYC from other countries (It's a great school and very diverse)... Also Cardozo, Bayside and a couple of new ones that have a good reputation so far are the two that opened up in Forest Hills near Glendale/Woodhaven... The campus is called Metropolitan Campus but so far I've only read good reviews about it...
Additionally, this whole myth about NYC public schools being a toilet bowl is outdated... When I went to High School in the early 90s, that was a toilet bowl... Fights even in schools that at the time weren't considered bad in comparison with so many others in bad areas were common on a daily basis... For the most part, when I went to high school what you had was a number of tenured teachers who were sick and fed up with the rising number of undisciplined unruly kids who didn't have any parental guidance to smack them around if they misbehaved either because they were missing a mother or father, or the parents just didn't care... This coupled with the fact that the process of becoming a teacher in those times was much easier than now led to a generation of teachers who were either unqualified or disinterested which was why the entire public school system in almost any poor/working class and even in some cases middle class areas was poor...
I wasn't around back then, but I have a feeling that it was harder to become a teacher in NYC 25 years ago then it is now. There are many teachers right now with out masters degree or experience, but manage to get into the classroom because they went through a summer program, and given a mentor for their first year teaching.
Nowadays, as bad as we claim students are in comparison with previous generations, the reality is that while there are tons of kids who lack the motivation that previous generations had due to their being coddled and taken care of to the point of spoiled by their parents, the behavior problem is not what it used to be... Teachers nowadays in comparison with those who became teachers in the 90s and early 2000s are much more qualified (and I frankly don't care what any tenured teacher whose been teaching for 10-15 years says... I've seen and heard it from tenured teachers myself working in the school setting for the last 4 years now) than those in recent years... Of course there are plenty of exceptions but there are still too many that fit the unqualified bill...
This couldn't by any further away from the truth... There are 20 something year olds coming into classrooms without the necessary experience. Not only are teachers able to do a much better job when they have had more time to "train", but I also feel life experience counts for a lot. I find it hard to believe that some kid who got their bachelors in some random major moving to NYC to join the Williamsburg scene is well equipped to teach high schoolers while they go to classes at night so they can earn what they should have prior to being able to teach anyones child.
I look at the public educational system now as being on the upswing... You still have your old school dedicated staff who have been working in these schools for 30-40 years who have never stopped caring (Mr. Pulera in Grover Cleveland High School is an example that comes to mind... He's been teaching at this school for over 40 years now and still going strong)... You also have a growing number of new teachers who are working on changing the poor image that the public school system currently has... Schools like Grover Cleveland, John Adams, Williamsburg Campus (all four of the charter schools), Flushing High School, LIC HS are all worlds better than how they used to be and it's about time that the stigma that has plagued these schools for so long slowly begins to fade...
Im sure there are older and more qualified teachers in some high schools. But, there are so many high schools being split into 4 schools, slapped with some "imaging changing" name so that people will think its fancy.... and then filling it with teachers sometimes only 3-4 years older than seniors who don't have a clue of how to manage an over filled classroom with teens from the most impoverished neighborhoods.
I am also a graduate of a NYC public schools, in my twenties, and its very easy for me to see why the system is becoming worse than what people believed two decades ago.
I don't think there are any. I went to Bayside in the early 90s and was in their Honors program which at the time, I thought was a path to an Ivy League college. I ended up at SUNY because of lack of financial aid (scholarships at top 10 unis i was accepted to didn't cover my full tuition and I didn't want any loans for college). In the end, the valedictorian from my HS went off to Harvard and a few others made it to other top places like Michigan and Duke, Wesleyan, Wellesley, etc but I found out the hard way my education wasn't great when I started freshman college courses (my college roommate was already well versed in Greek and Latin from her basic HS in Dix Hills and had 12 AP credits whereas Bayside only offered 4 AP courses in the entire school).
It's interesting that you bring up Long Island... I often wonder what their criteria is for hiring teachers.
What drags the NYC high schools down are the fellow students and generally the peer pressure not to view education as "cool". I don't know how much that has improved. At the time, schools like Bayside, Cardozo, Townsend Harris were considered top notch. Now, I wouldn't send my kids there if I lived in Queens.
Someone else pointed out these school as being decent. I agree that kids peers have great influence over them, but I somehow doubt the influence of the kids at Bayside have over their friends compared to the kids in high schools filled with kids who come from homes that below the poverty line are quite different. You're probably right about the schools you named not being to notch, but something tells me they're doing a lot better than most.
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and had 12 AP credits whereas Bayside only offered 4 AP courses in the entire school).
