For City Parents, The Search For A New Apartment Usually Goes Hand-In-Hand With Schooling Yourself About Local Education

By Eric Messinger

We all know that parents—like most home seekers—don’t examine a property on its own when considering whether to buy or rent it. They care about outside factors like the neighborhood, the location relative to the office, and of course, the local school options. For responsible parents, the old saw “Location, Location, Location” goes hand-in-hand with “Education, Education, Education.” We all want our children to have a good education, for their growth and happiness as children and for their future. But the question of what’s a good education—or good enough—is deeply personal and very complex in a city where there are so many outstanding choices among public, private, charter and parochial schools (as well as mediocre choices).  

For that reason, when a city family with young children is in the market for a new apartment, it’s also a good time to do extensive research about local education—how to identify good schools, how to do admissions work on every level, from nursery through high school. In terms of education, what does living in a certain place guarantee you, if anything?

We report stories about these issues all of the time, of course. (And you can find many of them on our website.) Think of this story less as a comprehensive overview for researching local education than as an informed starting point to education resources every parent should know while they’re researching where to live locally.

For independent (i.e. private) nursery schools and ongoing schools, check out Victoria Goldman’s various tomes, with their straightforward info on schools and admissions policies. The Parents League is another wonderful resource, as is the Independent School Admission Association of Greater New York, more simply known as ISAAGNY.

For public school, Clara Hemphill has three editions out—covering grade, middle and high school, respectively—and the website she founded, Inside Schools, is the place to go for candid but reliable overviews of particular schools. But a local parent interested in public school should also become familiar with the Department of Education’s website—especially its school search engine and data on particular ones of interest to you. At the very least you will be able to learn which local public grade school a particular building is zoned for. And then you will be able to check out some baseline data like reading and math scores by tabbing over to the area on “Performance & Accountability” and looking up ELA and Math scores by school from the last few years. By the way, the DOE website lists good charter info too, but interested parents should supplement it by visiting the Charter Center’s website.   

In selecting the following available properties, we aspired to our usual goal of trying to give readers a feel for the marketplace while hopefully turning them on to a few places they may like. This time however, the added thread is that every property is zoned for a good local public school (see sidebar matching properties and schools). But don’t take our word for it: do your own research.

424 West End Avenue, Apartment 16J (above)
West River House | Upper West Side
In one of the few luxury rental residences on West End Avenue, this high-floor apartment has much to offer, including a gut renovation with condo-like finishes, a convertible 3 bedroom with 2.5 baths, approximately 1,400-square-feet with a gourmet chef’s windowed and eat-in kitchen boasting Costa Esmeralda granite counters and stainless steel appliances. There are customized closets and a large master bedroom with an ensuite master bath. The full-service building is pet-friendly, has a 24-hour attended garage, penthouse fitness center, a landscaped furnished roofdeck with magnificent views of the Hudson River and the city skyline, a bicycle storage room and exclusive Sky’s The Limit concierge service.
Number of Bedrooms: Convertible 3
Asking Price (Rental): $8,595/month
Contact: Manhattan Skyline’s rental office, 347-728-0367

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