the 411 on middle school for parents of babies
THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 AT 8:50AM
The information about middle school placements this week may wipe the g&t aggravation off the front pages for a couple days. There is a lot of fear and loathing around the ms choice process. Let me lay it out for you.In suburbia, you have a zoned middle school and that is where your child will attend. We here in NYC have district-wide middle school choice. Some very few people will also have a zoned school associated with their address, but that doesn't mean that you don't get to participate. Middle school is 6,7 and 8th grade.
In the fall of 5th grade parents and students tour the middle schools in their districts and occasionally a few random city-wide choices outside their districts. They rank the district choices on an application. Then their first 2 choices (along with any city-wide choices) will call their kids in for an additional assessment; an interview, group activity, essay, audition to gather more information beyond the kid's transcript. Most of these schools as well as the other schools farther down your list are 'screening' by attendance and punctuality from 4th grade (because the process happens so early in the 5th