Eighth-grade students at M.S. 244 in the Bronx receive their high school admission letters.
‘Did you get in?’ High school offer letters bring smiles, a few tears to Bronx classrooms
Anticipation held eighth-graders at the edges of their seats at The New School for Leadership and Journalism in the Bronx on Friday afternoon.
The roughly 300 students, along with more than 76,000 of their peers across New York City, were seconds away from opening up their high school acceptance letters, informing them where they would spend the next four years. (See Chalkbeat’s guide to high school admissions debates.)
“I can’t do this,” shouted a boy at the back of the room, shaking as he clenched the white envelope in his hands.
After the school’s principal and guidance counselor finished passing out all of the letters, they signaled to the class to open them simultaneously. A clamor of shouts, cheers and sobs erupted across the room. Some students sprang up in excitement, while others sank into their desks in dismay. Read more.
We asked, you answered: What happened when teachers went too far?
Being a teacher can be frustrating. Having a frustrated teacher can be upsetting.
Chalkbeat’s been taking a look at the ways school discipline policies play out in classrooms, and spent time asking students and teachers about moments that changed them — times they just lost their cool, or saw others lose theirs. Here are a few of those stories. Read more.
From the Bronx to Brooklyn, how six eighth-graders handled high school applications
Katherine Studt, who lives on the Upper East Side, has been on several high school tours with her father and wants to find a quality writing program. Bryan Abreu, from the South Bronx, talked to his friends about the admissions process and picked a school with a good basketball team.
Jalen Andujar, an eighth grader at M.S. 61 in Crown Heights, stands across the street from his apartment in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
This week, Katherine and Bryan are two of the city’s nearly 75,000 eighth-graders who faced the same deadline — to submit a list that’s likely to determine where they spend their next four years of school.
Unsurprisingly, some were scrambling to fill their final application slots on Monday night, while others had spent months touring schools and studying for admissions tests.
The complicated process is the product of the city’s choice-based high school admissions system, which allows families to rank their top school preferences then sorts students based on a citywide algorithm. Not only do students have to sift through a 649-page directory, but schools have widely varying admissions requirements, which could include tests, interviews, and essays.
This week, we asked six teenagers to tell us how they made their choices. Read more.
Democracy Prep Charter Middle School reading and writing teacher Noah Mackert (right) interviews his former student, Kristophe Yen — an eighth-grader at Democracy Prep — for a live story-share using the StoryCorps app.
Listen: New York City teachers and students share their stories
In a school system of 1.1 million students and 75,000 educators, there are an endless number of riveting stories just waiting to be heard.
Over the last few weeks, Chalkbeat has partnered with StoryCorps to try to collect some of them. We asked New York City teachers and students to tell us about the greatest challenge they’ve faced this school year or a moment that surprised them. Read more.
Nick Lawrence, social studies teacher at East Bronx Academy for the Future, "re-learned that if part of a teacher eval system does not improve teaching, it should not be used."
What did you learn this school year?
On this last day of school, we wanted to share what some of our readers learned over the last year.
Chalkbeat readers reflected on lessons learned at our event last week, but we want to hear from you, too. Tell us what you learned, and we’ll add your response. Comment in the thread below, tell us on Facebook, or Tweet at us by including @ChalkbeatNY in your response. Read more.