Sending your teenage terror to one of the city's top public math and science high schools doesn't necessarily mean much when it comes to later standardized test scores, according to a new paper from economists at MIT and Duke. But that doesn't mean that the schools, which they refer to as "exam-schools," don't have value. Oh, they do. Trust us. more ›

In 1995 the Department of Education (then the Board of Education) started a program called the Specialized High Schools Institute with the goal of getting more black and Hispanic students into the city's top-tier specialized high schools (i.e. Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech). But it isn't quite working out the way it was expected to. more ›

Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech students—actually, New York City high school kids in general—are you reading this? Stop, close the browser and get back to class. This year not one New York City kid made it into the final round of the Intel Science Talent Search (still the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in our hearts). New York State at least had seven finalists, beaten by California's 11. And the city had seven semi-finalists, so there is that. But still, let's do better next time, mmmkay? more ›

The Times has released a study focusing on the racial breakdown of students admitted into the city's high profile specialized high schools. They found white and Asian students to be offered admission at nearly five times the rate of black and Hispanics who took the test. That has led to demographics such as Stuyvesant being comprised of 67% Asians and Bronx Science of only 4% blacks. The disparities do not improve greatly even when just looking at students who came out of special test prep programs. The paper points out that diversifying the schools is hampered by a recent Supreme Court decision only allowing income to be a factor in admission's decisions as well as simply "a dearth of blacks and Hispanics taking the test." As far as why they're not taking it, the paper talks to students who suggest factors such as lack of motivation to not knowing where the admission testing sites even are. more ›

Never mind the kids who are being murdered by violent parents or drugged to death by foster mothers, the Administration for Children's Services is busy checking up on the home environments of kids who skip gym class too many times, even though that's not technically a violation worthy of an ACS home visit. more ›

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Today, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein released the "first-ever" public school progress reports with letter grades. The reports are meant to give educators and parents a snapshot of how well schools are doing and empower them to keep improving. Mayor Bloomberg said, "With these Progress Reports, parents no longer have to navigate a maze of statistics to determine how their child's school is doing and how it compares to others. And our educators now... more ›

Newsweek released that latest list of 1,200 top high school rankings. It is precisely the kind of list that makes people many parts crazy, because their schools aren't listed at all or because their schools are listed and it'll drive up property prices. The NY Sun says that the list snubs the city, as none of the city's prestigious schools are listed in the top 100: "The top-ranked city school, the High School for Arts and Business in Queens, placed at no. 351. Forest Hills High School, also in Queens, squeezed in at no. 1,159." Three other high schools in Queens were listed, as were a school in Staten Island and one in Brooklyn. more ›

The Dept. of Education released its list of where 8th Graders are choosing to attend high school and apparently Queens is the place to be in the fall of '07. Townsend Harris High received the largest number (3,452) of incoming freshmen applicants listing the school as their first choice for the next academic year. According to the NY Post City schools and their students aren't bound by geography. 8th Graders are asked to list their 12 most-preferred schools they'd like to attend and then they are assigned a high school. The high school matching program is separate from the admissions process to the city's nine specialized schools, where 27,000 students took an exam to gain entrance to schools like Bronx Science and Stuyvesant that have a total of 5,500 seats. more ›

NY State has the most semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, with 117 entrants out of 300. Eighteen semifinalists are from NYC public schools. Here's the breakdown: Stuyvesant has 7; Bronx Science has 6; Townsend Harris, SI Tech, Murrow, Midwood and Brooklyn Tech each have 1. Mayor Bloomberg said, "It's another testament to the quality of our schools." Well, it's a testament to seven schools, at least. more ›

NY1 has a good look at the differing rules for cell phone use at two very different public schools in the Bronx. One is DeWitt Clinton High School, where classes are frequently overcrowded and there are metal detectors at the entrance. The other is Bronx High School of Science, the magnet school whose has seven Nobel Prize-winning (in physics) graduates. more ›

Bronx High School of Science, one of the city's top magnet schools, is suddently in a pickle (or is that kimchee?) with Korean parents. The NY Sun reports that parents have raised more than $100,000 to start a promisd Korean language program at the school, but the school has only offered an elective since. There are lots of questions, like why did the school accept checks from parents while the Department of Education denies any knowledge of them and why did parents fundraise when donated money cannot pay for teachers. The school did give back $70,000 in donations from Jwin Electronics, but the DOE can't seem to account for thousands of dollars from other organizations, like the Korean Embassy and LG Electronics. And then there's this:

Interest in the matter has even extended to the West Coast. A professor at UCLA, Ailee Moon, is the president of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture, which contributed $5,000 and flew to New York to review the program with the principal in February of this year. Ms Moon was concerned that only the one course was offered. more ›

- Should more resources, like mentoring programs, be put in place to encourage students to apply? more ›

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Conan O'Brien gave the commencement speech to Stuyvesant High School students, and thank God for YouTube. To win over the crowd, he slams grandparents and Bronx Science right out of the gate and later he mentions that he researched Stuyvesant using Wikipedia. Gothamist hopes Stuyvesant Class of 2006 knows how lucky they were, as their commencement speakers are probably down hill from here. And certainly this is better PR for Stuyvesant than cuddle groups on the cover of New York magazine (we think!). more ›

Bad, elite high schools, bad! Investigators found out that Brooklyn Tech, the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant all made low-income students pay for AP exams, while the schools received NY State grant money to fund them. Some of you may remember that AP exams are expensive - $82 a pop nowadays (we think they were around $70-some circa 1993), and the NY Times explains that students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches qualify for free AP exams. But the schools would charge those students $20-52 an exam. The whistle was blown on the operation when Brooklyn Tech's AP coordinator, Margaret Blau, wanted to refund the students after receiving the state's reimbursement of $13,000. Brooklyn Tech principal Lee McCaskill told her "he did not wish to be troubled issuing 259 checks to students, and that the surplus should be kept in the Brooklyn Tech account to be used for student activities." more ›

- A suspended Bronx police officer was arrested again for allegedly raping a woman who he'd offered a lift. more ›

We're glad we're not the halls of Stuyvesant or Bronx Science these days, as they were totally shafted when the Intel Science finalists were announced. In fact, none of the finalists for the 65th Annual STS are from NYC public schools - the only New Yorker is Horace Mann student Sarah Kate Rapoport. Does this mean the city's public school science curriculum, even at the magnet schools, sucks? Or was it bad luck? more ›

It's that time of year again - when the semi-finalists are the Intel Science Talent Search are announced! The NY Times says that NY State "dominated" the list, with 140 students coming from the Empire State - and there are only 300 semi-finalists total. While Long Island's Ward Melville High had 12 semi-finalists (tied for the most with Montgomery Blair in Maryland), we looked at the NY State breakdown and think we found 24 semi-finalists from Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan combined. (If our count is wrong, tell us - we know you love telling us when we're wrong!) Looking at the public schools, there were six from Bronx Science, one from Brooklyn Tech, two from Murrow, one from James Madison, three from Midwood, two from Hunter, and eight from Stuyvesant. It's probably good times at Stuy, if only to love beating Bronx Science in another way. more ›

Bloomberg, beginning his final election push, yesterday announced the creation of seven new specialized high schools to take the run-off from the 28,000 students who annually apply to attend Stuvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech. The well-timed proposal came less than twenty-four hours before the first round of the city's eighth-graders took the exam to get into those highly selective schools (good luck!). To really rub in his point Bloomberg even pulled out the old statistic about how getting into the specialized schools is as hard as getting into an Ivy. Which is nice and all except that the new schools don't sound much like the old ones. Firstly, they will be a fair amount smaller and secondly they will almost all be affiliated with local colleges and universities (not that there is anything wrong with that, we're just saying). This second point was emphasized by the fact that the announcement was made at Columbia and one of the proposed schools would theoretically go on Columbia's proposed Manhattanville campus (which raises the question: didn't Columbia just start another school? Wasn't the plan for that to grow into a high school?). more ›

City health officials are wondering what's going on at Bronx Science High School, one of the city's coveted magnet schools: Hundreds of students were ill last week. The bathrooms and cafeteria are all being tested, as complaints of nausea, stomach aches, diarrhea, and vomiting have increased. (Hey, that sounds like Wednesday nights at Gothamist!) The Health Department thinks it's a viral illness: The medical director of the Office of School Health said, "It's unusual, and if this were June, I would have thought that this was a pre-planned ditch day. We haven't seen anything this concentrated in other parts of the city." Gothamist doubts that even ditch days would be worth rampant D. more ›