AN AID FOR ANXIOUS TWEEN PARENTS

CLARA HEMPHILL DEMYSTIFIES NEW YORK CITY'S PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOLS IN A NEWLY UPDATED BOOK By Sarah Seltzer Clara Hemphill has always been a major resource for New York City parents who want to send their kids to public school but are daunted by the bureaucracy and ever-changing landscape. The co-founder of wildly popular website [insideschools.org], Hemphill has penned a series of books on New York City's best schools that demystify the ups, downs and in-betweens of schools in all five boroughs, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The newly updated third edition of New York City's Best Public Middle Schools (Teachers College Press, 2008) was just released this month. Hemphill spoke with us about the world of middle schools in Manhattan, from admissions to special ed and back again. Q: How is the middle school search and selection process different from elementary school? Are there still neighborhood schools? A: For middle school, there are very few zoned neighborhood schools, just Wagner and Baruch on the East Side. If you like those, you can relax. Some parents on the East Side choose to shop around because there are so many good options. On the West Side, there are no zoned schools; you have to shop around. Q: What's the application process like? A: You can visit schools in January. Some require an interview, which is not as scary as it sounds. They ask questions like: "If you could be anybody in history, who would that be?" They generally do not require a teacher recommendation. Some of the schools require their own separate tests, which you take in addition to 4th grade standardized tests. Q: When I was a kid, middle schools were thought of as the weak link in the Manhattan system. A: There was a time when a lot of middle class parents bailed from the public school system after elementary school. It's not necessary now. There's been a big emphasis on improving middle schools in Manhattan. What's happened is that the middle schools that used to be a bit of a gamble are now really solid. There's not this big gap between everyone's favorite school and all the others. Q: What is the standard terminology now for all these middle schools? Are they magnet schools? Specialized schools? A: They're called option schools now. The district in which you live must find you a seat, so there's no chance you'll be shut out entirely. You may not get first choice, but it's very difficult to go to a school outside of your district. Q: How do charter schools fit into the picture? A: Charter schools accept children according to lottery. They tend to crop up in neighborhoods where parents are dissatisfied with public schools, so they often serve black and Hispanic populations. There are a number in Harlem. Those are certainly an option. Q: What are some options for parents of kids with special needs? A: A lot of kids are identified with special needs in late elementary school and early middle school. In every school I visited I asked about special needs, and I recommend that all parents ask. How schools treat special needs kids is an example of how they'll treat anybody who doesn't fit the mold. There are a range of services you can get, starting from 504 accommodations [extra time on tests]. If that's not enough help, you might get resource room, which is placement in regular classroom, but help outside of class. The other thing that has increased since the last edition of my book is collaborative team teaching, which is two teachers, one of whom is certified in special ed, teaching a mix of kids, most of whom are general ed. It's a great option for kids who need a little bit of extra help but don't want to be segregated in a special ed class. That's something you can look at in a large number of middle schools. Q: How has the admissions process changed in the Bloomberg era? A: The Department of Education has centralized the admissions process and moved it back many months. Now the central office does both middle school and high school admissions. They are not telling kids where they'll be going to middle school until June. This has really frustrated parents. Q: As more families stay in Manhattan and more condos are built, some parents have expressed worries about overcrowding. A: I don't think the city has worked hard enough to accommodate all the new families in Manhattan. There's a bigger increase in the school-age population than in the number of seats. It used to be that middle class families moved to suburbs. Now they're staying. The city hasn't responded fast enough to this, so there's a huge amount of anxiety. Q: As you looked at all these middle schools, what struck you as unique about that stage in a child's development? A: It's a tough age for parents because nobody consults their 5-year-old. Eleven-year-olds have opinions, but they're not old enough to make decisions entirely for themselves. My daughter wanted to go to a school with red lockers. I said, "You have to come up with better reasons," and she did. When I first stared writing these middle school books I cared a lot about academic achievement, but one of the things I look for now is a good social atmosphere. Middle school kids can be really nasty to each other. I look for schools school where the principal and teachers work on kids being nice to each other and not forming cliques. Find New York City's Best Public Middle Schools on [Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Clara%20Hemphill) or [BarnesandNoble.com](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Clara+Hemphill)[ ](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Clara+Hemphill)