School Stories | Reporting on Education in NYC

Charter School Admissions as Hard as Harvard?

5/04/09 •

By JAMIE OPPENHEIM, PAUL STEPHENS and MAURA WALZ

April admissions lotteries around the city dramatically illustrated how rapidly New York’s charter schools have evolved into an overnight sensation. They are well-publicized, sought-after, politically active educational institutions. But what are the consequences of all the hype for families hoping to enroll their child in a charter?

Recent Articles

Fuzzy Math

5/16/09 •

By HEATHER GROSSMANN

New York City straphangers can’t ride the subway without being assaulted by a barrage of cheerfully colored signs advertising hopeful statistics on the city’s school system.

Critical Educators

5/15/09 •

By MAURA WALZ

Midway through his first year as a Teach for America teacher in Brooklyn, Andrew Parsons began to suspect that the way he’d been taught to teach was not helping his first-grade students to learn.

Dancing to Work

5/15/09 •

By ALEXANDRA FENWICK

Every morning, Olivier Heuts walks from his apartment on the Upper West Side to the school across the East River in Queens. The extreme commute takes him an hour and 15 minutes. Even in bad weather, he never takes the train.

Second Chance

5/14/09 •

By RICHIE GERGEL

Miguel Gabin helped push crack cocaine in the second grade. Flash forward a few years when he dropped out of high school for a minimum wage job to support his family. Now 18 years old, he’s back in school, preparing for the SATs–all without a home.