The Shifting School Equation
There wasn’t room to discuss it yesterday, but we suspect the public/private school issue is on a number of people’s minds. Over the weekend, The Times ran an article about the number of people who bought their apartments in recent years with the assumption that they would send their kids to private school. Now that…
There wasn’t room to discuss it yesterday, but we suspect the public/private school issue is on a number of people’s minds. Over the weekend, The Times ran an article about the number of people who bought their apartments in recent years with the assumption that they would send their kids to private school. Now that the economic downturn has made that a more difficult proposition, they are left to confront the limitations of their own school district. In some cases, parents are even considering renting a cheap apartment within a good school district just to get access—after all, it would be cheaper than the $30,000+ tuition in Manhattan. (It’s more like $25,000 here in Brooklyn.) Question for the renters and those in the market to buy in Brooklyn: Has the school issue shifted your real estate plans since the downturn began?
The Sudden Charm of Public School [NY Times]
Photo by Steve and Sara
rf – are you agreeing with me or disagreeing with me. I am not familar with the school you mention but your description seems to indicate that a culture of learning is well ingrained in a majority of the parents/families there. Please do not mistake my earlier quote to indicate that it is wealth that makes children well prepared for learning (it can obviously help to some degree and it might be a generational by-product of an emphasis on education) – my point is that it is what takes place in the HOME that is by far the MOST important factor in determining what happens in school. I am sure a good principal helps overall, but the best principal in worst schools and the worst principals in the best schools wouldnt/couldnt change the achievement rates that vary by massive amounts between these schools/children.
In my opinion this is a huge opportunity for the FG/CH schools like PS 20 and PS 11.
For all the talk about Diversity in FG, a quick walk past any one of the local schools tells an entirely different and telling story.
I would really like to know why more white and multi-cultural parents aren’t sending their kids to schools like PS 20 and PS 11?
Without the chance to game the system through variances and other loopholes and an uncertain financial future clouding private school aspirations, FG/CH parents will have no choice BUT to sent their kids to their community schools.
How is the FG stroller set going to deal with this ‘crisis’?
58 is a really great school and an interesting case. when I have more time. it has to do with projects not being the same everywhere and 58 has a large immigrant population which can bring up test scores (ditto Shuang Wen)
21 is great school too. And a great example of why schools with kids from the projects can’t be great schools. They can be! Of course! Just saying that adding wealthy kids doesn’t add to the equation. “NO wealthy or white children in attendance!” THIS is what I’m saying. Often a classroom of kids on the same level or near the same level is a TEACHABLE class.
HELLOOOOOO! here i have 18 years of private school education and seriously, all i have to account for it besides my drafting drone job -and poor grammar- are nagging boomer parents who constantly tell me i am unappreciative, ungrateful, unsupportive blah blah of THEIR decision to sacrifice like martyrs for the sake of making tuition payments. Dear mom and dad, that was your choice, therefore your concequence.
thanks all, time to get up from the couch now. 😉
P-D, How did you obtain your waiver to transfer your child? I was granted a transfer from the Enrollment Office and they are having trouble placing my kids in another school due to overcrowding. Other than my zone school, the closest school to me is P.S. 261.
I agree that the whole system needs to be overhauled. The Board of Education needs to realize that just a handful of good public schools is not a good reflection on their performance. There should be more repercussions when a school fails. If a school fails, the principal and assistant principals should have some accountablility, if a certain amount of schools are failing in a district, the superintendent should be held accountable, etc. until it reaches the Chancellor’s level. The Chancellor has been praised for his job performance, but the fact that we have so many schools that are failing says otherwise.
Ringo: “but to keep denying that kids who don’t have the benefit of preschool, or early education, or a stay-at-home parent, or a dedicated nanny, or a great daycare, or a two parent home, or a an english-speaking household or any combination of the above are BEHIND when they start school and STAY BEHIND throughout school is not helpful to these kids.”
your comments are absolutely unbelievable to me! i didn’t know you were such an expert on the projects – you probably have spent alot of time there collecting this useful data.
did you read ‘rf’ comment?
No Ringo , you did not say stupid. You just correlated the 1/3 of the project kids at PS 8 with the 1/3 of the kids who performed badly on the test and the fact that PS 321 and PS 29 do well and have no project kids.
I don’t know PS 8s situation sounds like they are in the beginning stages of a turn around. As I said it takes more than money to pull a school up. You need both commitment and forward thinking but with out the $$$$$$ it’s all dreams.
And I agree that kids who have a college educated parent and books at home have a leg up on the competition. But it is that very fact that necessitates that the schools have the funds and wherewithal to help balance the playing field.
The current test scores at PS 8 are misleading because the school’s demographic has shifted. The school has been closed to out-of-zone kids for a couple of years now (except for siblings of current students), so the lower classes are comprised almost entirely of families who live in the Heights and DUMBO. There is way less diversity in these classes, and class size has risen sharply–though construction is to begin soon on an annex with additional classrooms.
The upper classes are far more diverse, both economically and racially, and it is those classes (3rd-5th grade) that take the standardized tests that are reported on the DOE and Inside Schools websites. Test scores have already risen but probably will rise quite a bit in the next few years as the demographic shift is reflected in the NYC standardized tests.
PS 8 is a success by any standard, not overnight but one that has been building for several years. The principal is really gifted and is especially skilled at hiring staff. But a large part of the school’s success has to do with the fact that neighborhood parents bought in and started sending their kids there. And so it has become a great choice for exactly the demographic that can give their children advantages to begin with, i.e. books, a rich verbal environment, cultural enrichment, all of which do predict school success.
to brownstoner’s original question – i wish that i had thought about school district when we moved to bed-stuy. we did not have children at the time and it wasn’t a thought. we moved where we got the most bang for our buck in an ‘up and coming area’. hind sight being 20/20 – i think these UES folks are doing the right thing by moving to a good school zone ‘just in case’. now that i am here with kids, i just have to figure it out like everyone else in my hood, whom private school is not an option for.
i do believe that private school is for the parents – just to say ‘look what i can afford’, look at me, look at me.
Ringo:
If projects were an issue -then answer me this, why is PS 21, located in bed-stuy, directly across the streets from the projects, listed consistently as one of the best public elementary schools, right up there with PS 8, 29 & 321? i would stand by that there are NO wealthy or white children in attendance! your comment is pure ignorance!