Do you know a Roosevelt Island High School or Junior High School student
graduating this year in need of Prom attire?
The NYPD 114 precinct, which covers Roosevelt Island, wants you to know help is available and
tweets:
Help us spread the word 🗣any senior graduating high school or junior high
school in need of prom attire is invited to join us on Saturday April 30
from 11 to 5pm at Bryant High School 48-10 31st Ave. We will be giving
away free dresses and suits to seniors in need 👗👔
pic.twitter.com/RPYre6tjJ5
Specialized High Schools Admissions Information Sessions
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 23, 2019, 11 a.m.
You are invited to a free information session for parents and students (4th to 8th grade) about Specialized High Schools. A representative from the New York Department of Education will be available to answer any questions you may have about the application process for the following schools:
Bronx High School of Science
The Brooklyn Latin School
Brooklyn Technical High School
High School for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at the City College of New York (Manhattan)
High School of American Studies at Lehman College (Bronx)
Queens High School for the Sciences at York College
Staten Island Technical High School
Stuyvesant High School
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts
Sign up to attend a session by emailing shsat@schools.nyc.gov or calling 212-637-8080. Space is limited and is available on a first come, first served basis.
Your plan will discriminate against Asian-Americans, who make up a majority of the population in schools like Stuyvesant HS and Bronx Science. Don't weaken standards at the specialized high schools, instead, do the really hard work of improving education for all.
— (((Adrian Benepe))) (@Adrian_Benepe) June 4, 2018
CUNY Media hosted an interesting 3 part discussion last month on the controversy regarding admissions criteria and testing for the NYC Specialized High Schools - Who Belongs In NYC Specialized High Schools?
CUNY Media reports approximately 30,000 students take the NYC Specialized High School Test but only 6,000 get admitted.
How many Roosevelt Island students apply to NYC Specialized High Schools and how many get accepted?
UPDATE 4 PM - According to the NY Times, only 6 eight grade students at Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 took the Specialized High School Exam last year. Fewer than 6 received offers, (exact numbers were not available)
New York City Schools are more segregated today then they were when in 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education was decided. Our Specialized High Schools have seen a drop in enrollment by black and Latino students by as much as 27% since de Blasio became Mayor. Despite this drop, 44% to 66% of students at the Specialized High Schools are Title I, with a majority coming from homes where English is not the primary language.
Earlier this year, I advocated for the Department of Education to expand the Discovery program to allow low-income students of color who narrowly miss the exam score to catch up with summer enrichment programming. The Discovery program was available when I went to a Specialized High School it shouldn't have stopped, and bringing it back took far too long. The Department of Education announced an expansion to all specialized High Schools in response to my questions at a hearing of the Education Committee on March 23rd of this year.
I oppose replacing objective criteria like this exam with subjective measures that would further erode any notion of a meritocracy, let alone, anything that would make the Specialized High Schools a part of a citywide process that is broken and that leaves countless students out of the schools they apply to without any objective measures, essentially leaving them trapped in failing high schools.
Prior to eliminating the sole objective criteria, the City must:
Seat every middle school student for a practice exam followed by the actual exam during school hours; and
Provide free preparation for the examination as part of a Universal After School mandate;
Rather than target Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech, I would urge the Mayor to accept my recommendation since I was elected to expand Gifted and Talented programs with new schools throughout the city to meet the need. The Mayor could even lead by example offer seat in 5 of the 8 Specialized High Schools without state approval, anything else is just rhetoric.
I have made my objections known over the past four years, including on CBS in response to the Mayor's announcement. I wholeheartedly support and endorse the position of the Daily News Editorial Board and honestly couldn't have said it better myself.
Please join me, other elected officials, the New York Post, Daily News, other alumni, parents, and students throughout our city by sign and circulate our petition,
Our office’s Legal Bound High School Summer Internship Program is a rigorous six-week internship that provides students with an insider’s view of the criminal justice system and law enforcement in New York County. This internship is open to rising juniors and seniors in high school who reside in Manhattan. Our interns attend a variety of public, private and parochial schools representing the diverse communities of the borough.
Interns are assigned to various units within the office and assist attorneys and support staff with projects and other responsibilities. They also attend many law-related presentations and trips and prepare for a mock trial throughout the program....
The New York Times Schoolbook reported earlier this week on NY eighth grade students waiting to find out what high school they would attend next year including this Roosevelt Island resident:
... At the American Sign Language and English Lower School in Manhattan, Melissa Moncion, 14, said she had applied to eight schools, but only one really mattered.
“When I opened my envelope, I was shaking,” she said. But on Wednesday, she learned she got into that first choice, Pace High School.
Melissa, who lives on Roosevelt Island, can hear but has been attending the Sign Language school since pre-kindergarten. Her mother, Anna, who hails from the Dominican Republic, is deaf. When her mother came to the school to pick her up on Wednesday, Melissa signed to tell her she had been accepted to Pace. Her mother’s face lit up, and she clasped her hands with a firm shake: “Congratulations,” she signed to her daughter....
If you are an eighth grade student, or the parent of one, considering which New York City high school to attend next year, you may find this AVC Blog post from venture capitalist Fred Wilson about the Academy of Software Engineering High School of interest:
... We are now recruiting the first class of 9th graders. Today and tomorrow are big days as we will be at the citywide High School Fair at Martin Luther King Jr High School on the Upper West Side. The fair is on from 10am to 2pm both days this weekend and Seung and I will be there along with many of the folks on the school's advisory board. Next week on Tuesday night there is an open house for parents and students at Google's office and next weekend there is an open house for parents and students at NYU. And there is one more open house the following week at NYU. If you know any students who are going into ninth grade and are a fit for this school, please tell them and their parents to come to the High School Fair and the Open Houses. That's the best way for them to get into this school.
Fast forward several years. After finishing the Academy of Software Engineering High School and then college, come back to Roosevelt Island's Cornell Technion NYC Applied Sciences & Engineering School
The NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies is one of the most successful and sought-after small high schools in the city. The academics are challenging, but the atmosphere is laid-back. Kids who thrive there are high achievers who speak up, get involved and, in the spirit of the school's name, collaborate with others on projects and extra-curricular activities.
Founded as a 6-12 school, in 2007 Lab High School split from the middle school known as the New York City Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies. Though the two schools maintain a common vision of collaborative and inclusive learning, they are run by separate administrations, with separate admissions policies, teaching, and support staff...
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
