The Scoop on PS 8?

One word of advice, onefineday: by the time your kids are in middle school, any advice we could give you now would be irrelevant. Brownstone brooklyn has had a huge demographic shift, and that’s reflected in the public schools. It is probably a fairly safe bet that a public school in Brooklyn Heights/downtown Brooklyn is going to go nowhere but up.

PS8 is a mixed bag. My child attended the school for 5 years starting in Kindergarten but is now in fifth grade elsewhere. There are some excellent teachers – some not so good ones and a very small number of very bad ones. If your child is lucky enough to get the good teachers year after year – as some children do – you’ll be a very happy customer. If your child doesn’t get lucky in this regard – your view of the school will be considerably different. This is one reason you’ll find tremendously varied opinions on the place. Something to consider is the enormous attrition rate. Many of the students my child started out with in Kindergarten did not stay with the school. Some left because they moved away though many chose to go elsewhere including BNS, Community Roots, PS58 and of course the private schools. One thing I should point out is that socially it was terrific. Its a very nice community of students and parents. My kid made great friends as did my wife and I. I never heard of any bullying or really bad behavior. You couldn’t hope to find a nicer school community. Another thing to note is that the school isn’t particularly proactive in identifying learning disabilities or providing any sort of special services in the way a school like Community Roots does. I know of several examples of dyslexic children not having their needs recognized or addressed. Another thing to consider is that PS8 is a district 13 school. District 13 doesn’t have a very good selection of middle schools – which becomes a real problem for people who live in District 13 and send their kids to a district 13 school. Several parents I know who live in District 13 chose to transfer their kids to a district 15 school specifically so they’d have the option of sending them to a District 15 middle school – like MS 51 or Math & Science. Middle school may seem like something in the far distant future at this point but well – you know how it is. PS8 works out very well for some and not so well for others. If it doesn’t work out – there are ways of finding a different situation – as many people I know have done. For a child in the lower grades who doesn’t have any sort of developmental, learning or behavioral issues – PS8 is great. If your child has any sort of issues – it can be less than great. The upper grades can still be problematic – and something really has to be done about the middle school issue. I have no particular axe to grind with the school and am simply trying to provide a measured and fair view. I’m very grateful to some of the teachers my child was lucky enough to have there. I wish they all could have been of that very high caliber.