Reputable Sites for School Ratings?

You can get the current demographic/racial breakdown of any public school in NYC:

1. go to http://schools.nyc.gov
2. search for your school by name or number where it says “find a school.”
3. when you get to the school’s web page, click on statistics on the left side
4. scroll down to register.

For example, this is what it says for Brooklyn Tech, where my daughter goes to school:

Total Student Population 4,881

School Level
High Schools 4,881 100%

Gender
Female 2,061 42.22%
Male 2,820 57.78%

Ethnicity
American Indian 5 0.10%
Asian / Pac. Isl 2,889 59.19%
Hispanic 396 8.11%
Black 579 11.86%
White 1,005 20.59%
Not Reported 7 0.14%

English Language Learners (ELL)
ELL 2 0.04%

Special Education
General Ed 4,849 99.34%
Least Restrictive Environment 32 0.66%

http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/13/K430/AboutUs/Statistics/register.htm

I believe that some of the other statistical reports indicate racial breakdown with the test score results. But 1) the info is at least a year behind, and 2) it starts with 3rd grade, the first year of big-deal standardized tests.

Thanks all for the great info. From what I’m hearing, on the plus side I don’t need to be super-concerned just yet as we are planning on having kids, don’t have one yet, but wanted to make an assessment for the future. I came from a city where the schools’ quality/teachers/etc didn’t change from when I was in 1st grade to when I graduated highschool! So it’s interesting to hear that schools here change so quickly. I also didn’t realize the competitiveness and ability to send kids outside of zones…where I’m from, you went to the school in your zone and that was that, no testing, no camping in front to get kids in, etc. *sigh*

I believe that insideschools does update the database from the DOE about test scores and racial breakdown, but many of their reviews are outdated.

There’s also a huge amount of info on the Dept. of Education website. Search for the school, and when you’ve found the page, scroll down to “statistics” on the left side. Lots of reports, some useful, some not.

Here is a paid consultant:
http://www.nycschoolhelp.com/
run by Joyce Szuflita, who gives free and paid workshops. She’s visited virtually all the interesting District 13 schools and knows all the ins and outs about what’s going on there and where you can get a variance and how/when to apply. She has a free newsletter and a blog on the website and she posts to the FGKids Yahoogroup–maybe also the prospect heights group but I’m not sure.

Aside from looking for parents with kids at any school in which you’re interested, you can try to visit the school in the morning at drop-off time and/or in the afternoon at pickup time. Obvious disadvantage to morning visits: everyone is rushing to work; afternoon visit issue is that many kids are picked up by babysitters. But it’s worth a try, just as it’s a great idea to visit a block at various times of the day if you are considering moving there.

If you can get inside the building for parents’ assn. events and such, you can find out a lot about what’s going on there. See if you can meet the principal who is definitely the most important person in the building and can really make or break a school. I have heard wonderful reports about the principal at PS11 in Clinton Hill and the new principal at PS20 in Ft. Greene. I’ve heard good stuff about PS9 too but not so much.

Good luck! Today I voted at 2:15 at the elementary school closest to my house in Bed-Stuy which also has a middle school in the building whose students were just getting out. Made me very glad that my kid, just starting high school at Brooklyn Tech, didn’t go to either! But there are definitely some good and for sure improving schools in District 13. But I’m really glad we’re done with picking NYC public schools. College awaits!

insideschools is a waste of time in changing neighborhoods.
try urbanbaby.com, or the local parents group for the area. i can’t remember the name for that hood – but park slope has a big group. for north brooklyn, the yahoo group is: brooklynbabyhui.

only local parents at the school right now in the grade that your child will going in to matters.

also factor in where you child would go to if they got into the G&T program.

if you child is a baby, then don’t even bother- by the time they are 4, you’ll have figured it all out.

of course people will say that xyz school is great and such, but the other problem, is that many “good” schools are overflowing, and are not letting all zoned kids in, so unless you are talking about this year/next year, I’d say, buy property and then you’ll deal with it.

with that said, i used to live in Prospect Heights almost 10 years ago and hated it, but i’m sure it’s better. lots of daily harassment for both me and my room mate.