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My wife and I are looking to find a good school district for our young kids. I've read that recently some of the traditionally elite school districts (e.g., Park Slope/District 15, UWS), have been forcibly "integrated" by a) disallowing academic standards as admission criteria and b) having quotas for low-scoring/homeless students.
While I appreciate that for certain poltical factions this represents progress, I'm taking a completely non-political approach here. I just want my kid to have the best possible education, surrounded by other kids who are high performing and have parents who place a high value on education. I feel that forcibly infusing low performing students into these schools does not mesh with my family's needs.
Is this even possible with NYC public schools anymore, given the above-mentioned changes? Is private school the only way to ensure that your child is surrounded by high achievers with parents who are educationally-focused? I know there are top gifted schools that can be tested into with high standards (although I've even read how those schools, Stuyvesant/Bronx Science, are now going to have racial quotas rather than purely being based on academic testing).
Thanks.
Edit: Just to pre-empt any off-topic racial discussion, my wife and I are both immigrants and are a multi-ethnic household.
My wife and I are looking to find a good school district for our young kids. I've read that recently some of the traditionally elite school districts (e.g., Park Slope/District 15, UWS), have been forcibly "integrated" by a) disallowing academic standards as admission criteria and b) having quotas for low-scoring/homeless students.
While I appreciate that for certain poltical factions this represents progress, I'm taking a completely non-political approach here. I just want my kid to have the best possible education, surrounded by other kids who are high performing and have parents who place a high value on education. I feel that forcibly infusing low performing students into these schools does not mesh with my family's needs.
Is this even possible with NYC public schools anymore, given the above-mentioned changes? Is private school the only way to ensure that your child is surrounded by high achievers with parents who are educationally-focused? I know there are top gifted schools that can be tested into with high standards (although I've even read how those schools, Stuyvesant/Bronx Science, are now going to have racial quotas rather than purely being based on academic testing).
Thanks.
Edit: Just to pre-empt any off-topic racial discussion, my wife and I are both immigrants and are a multi-ethnic household.
Avoid the politics and move to the suburbs which have good public schools and commute in.
It’s going to be hard in Manhattan and Brooklyn, especially with more than one child. Policies are changing all the time. You can start out in a school that’s decent, and things go downhill. A young friend of the family teaches “gifted and talented†first grade in a Manhattan public school. It boggles the mind what she has to deal with. Even if just four or five kids are disruptive, it derails the education for the whole class. I feel bad for the kids in her class who are genuinely trying to learn. Plus, some of these disruptive kids are violent, and there’s pushing and shoving and biting. Some children have been injured by classmates. And this is FIRST GRADE.
It’s going to be hard in Manhattan and Brooklyn, especially with more than one child. Policies are changing all the time. You can start out in a school that’s decent, and things go downhill. A young friend of the family teaches “gifted and talented†first grade in a Manhattan public school. It boggles the mind what she has to deal with. Even if just four or five kids are disruptive, it derails the education for the whole class. I feel bad for the kids in her class who are genuinely trying to learn. Plus, some of these disruptive kids are violent, and there’s pushing and shoving and biting. Some children have been injured by classmates. And this is FIRST GRADE.
How did these disruptive kids get into the school?
Opinion: In my personal and other's experience growing up in NYC.. there is in my opinion an 8/10 chance you will be displeased with raising your kids in NYC's public school system. On top of that, all of the negative influences inside and outside of schools, plus everything is easily accessible with their metrocards. I know for a fact that if both parents are working, this gives a few hours of free time for bored children, which is most of how the bad influences start to be developed in children's lives. I would say, get out of the city, reduce your bills/mortgage. etc and if possible, have one parent at home or working part-time to keep track of your children.
Is this even possible with NYC public schools anymore, given the above-mentioned changes? Is private school the only way to ensure that your child is surrounded by high achievers with parents who are educationally-focused? I know there are top gifted schools that can be tested into with high standards (although I've even read how those schools, Stuyvesant/Bronx Science, are now going to have racial quotas rather than purely being based on academic testing).
Yes. There are many high-performing public schools throughout the boroughs. You never know when things are change but generally, most places stay relatively stable. What will happen in the future---who knows.
My wife and I are looking to find a good school district for our young kids. I've read that recently some of the traditionally elite school districts (e.g., Park Slope/District 15, UWS), have been forcibly "integrated" by a) disallowing academic standards as admission criteria and b) having quotas for low-scoring/homeless students.
While I appreciate that for certain poltical factions this represents progress, I'm taking a completely non-political approach here. I just want my kid to have the best possible education, surrounded by other kids who are high performing and have parents who place a high value on education. I feel that forcibly infusing low performing students into these schools does not mesh with my family's needs.
Is this even possible with NYC public schools anymore, given the above-mentioned changes? Is private school the only way to ensure that your child is surrounded by high achievers with parents who are educationally-focused? I know there are top gifted schools that can be tested into with high standards (although I've even read how those schools, Stuyvesant/Bronx Science, are now going to have racial quotas rather than purely being based on academic testing).
Thanks.
Edit: Just to pre-empt any off-topic racial discussion, my wife and I are both immigrants and are a multi-ethnic household.
For Manhattan top public elementary, middle high schools are largely in District 2 (see above link), followed by parts of UWS/lower Harlem which is District 3: https://insideschools.org/districts/3
Generally you are going to find best performing public schools closely track income/educational status of zoned area, this is true for Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island as well.
All this explains why parents pay huge sums to live in say District 2 area if they plan to send their kids to public schools for some or all of their education.
Your best bet is to narrow search down to an area of city, then search for schools and see what comes up. That is "West Village public schools", or "Tribeca public schools", etc..
As noted elsewhere in this thread current mayoral administration abetted by usual suspects including large parts of Department of Education are doing their best to bust good public elementary schools. Thus it pays to do research about plans for any particular district or individual school as to what plots are afoot.
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