NYC Private Schools

Responding to low enrollment by Hispanic and Black youth, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has filed a civil rights complaint challenging the admissions process at  Stuvesant High School.  Stuyvesant's admissions requirement now consists of prospective high school students needing to garner high scores on a single multiple choice math and verbal exam called the SSHSAT.

Sheldon Silver, Assembly Speaker, supports a bill in Albany that would eliminate the Stuyvesant test requirement in favor of a range of criteria including grades, extracurricular activities, and "proven leadership skills" .  New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, whose son, Dante, attends another prestigious specialized science high school, Brooklyn Tech, that uses the same SSHSAT exam requirement, also supports new admissions criteria.

Dennis Saffran, a Republican lawyer from Queens, has an interesting opinion piece in City Journal:  The Plot Against Merit.  Saffran believes that the proposed changes would discriminate against the striving Asian students who now make up the majority of the student body at Stuyvesant and the other specialized science high schools.  Saffran writes:

The poor students get into such schools through hard work and sacrifice—both their own and that of their parents. The students typically attend local tutoring programs, which proliferate in Asian neighborhoods, starting the summer after sixth grade and for several days a week, including weekends, during the school year prior to the test. The costs are burdensome for poor and working families, but it’s a matter of priorities. ...

All this once would have been the stuff of liberal dreams: a racial minority group historically victimized by discrimination begins coming to America in greater numbers because of an immigration reform sponsored by Ted Kennedy. Though many in the group remain in poverty, they take advantage of free public schools established by progressive New York City governments. By dint of their own hard work, they earn admission in increasing numbers to merit-based schools that offer smart working-class kids the kind of education once available only at Andover or Choate.

As a NYC educational consultant who works with many New York families applying to prestigious private schools as well as to public Stuyvesant High School, I am leery of admissions requirements that rely on one day's work, which seems like a snapshot rather than an in-depth, reliable picture of a student's potential.  I am also dismayed by the rise in test prep and the sacrifice of children's childhoods to prepare for exams.  I believe that Stuyvesant and other NYC admissions test-based high schools like my alma mater, Hunter College High School, should move to a system that considers students' school performance in admissions.

AABL by the ERB:  Are You Smart Enough for NYC Private School Kindergarten?  Amy Zimmer of  DNAinfo New York wants to know in her brilliant piece:  QUIZ:  Are You Smart Enough to Get Into Private School Kindergarten?

Taking linkbait to a whole new level, Zimmer asks you to try sample questions from BrightKids' prep materials for the new Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners (AABL) given by our old friends the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). 

The AABL test, meant to be given by iPad to NYC preschoolers for NYC private school kindergarten admission, is so challenging that my friends and colleagues all over Facebook are reporting their dismal scores.  Smarter than a 5th grader?  As if!   Zimmer writes:

While the new test is much cheaper for families — it's $65, rather than $568 for the old test, because the new test is taken by iPad rather than by a trained examiner — experts believe many parents will shell out even more on classes and books to prepare their toddlers for it.

"These are subjects that were not previously tested," said Emily Glickman, president of Abacus Guide Educational Consulting, who advises parents on private school admissions.

"The AABL is supposed to identify a child's ability and achievement," Glickman said. "That achievement part — how much you learned — is totally new. You usually think of an achievement test as something you take in high school. It's not something you think of for preschoolers."

The AABL tests early literacy and math skills, subjects that were not tested on the old ERB, the WPPSI.   Besides pointing out the change in price (significantly lower on the AABL), skills (significantly more on the AABL), tester (an iPad rather than a human on the AABL), Zimmer helpfully quotes Bige Doruk of BrightKids.  Doruk insightfully notes that this new ERB test will reward NYC kids from more academic preschools.

ISAAGNY, the Independent Schools Association of Greater New York, has published a chart for NYC private school kindergarten admissions, confusingly titled ISAAGNY ERB Chart.

What ERB test are they talking about?  Is it the ECAA kindergarten test?  It seems so, because the columns are titled "ECAA".  ECAA stands for Early Childhood Admission Assessment (ECAA).

What is the ECAA?   It is another name for a test that includes most subtests of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.  Why does the ERB--that's the Educational Records Bureau--need to call the WPPSI the ECAA?  How oblique does this need to be?

Meanwhile, to make the NYC private school kindergarten story even more intriguing, the ERB has recently introduced yet another test.  This one is called the Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners, or AABL.

So does ISAAGNY's chart mean anything at all?  Even the NYC private school admissions group doesn't seem sure.  From their site:

 

Please find a chart identifying those schools who will still require the ECAA test for Kindergarten, and those schools who will not for the 2014-2015 admissions season. As always, please check individual school's websites for further details.

Founded in 2005 as a new Brooklyn private school, The International School of Brooklyn offers Brooklynites a unique take on education.  From The International School of Brooklyn's website:

International School of Brooklyn is an N-8 International Baccalaureate (IB) and language immersion school (French and Spanish) located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. ISB is accredited by the French and Spanish Ministries of Education and a provisional member of NYSAIS. ISB is an IB authorized Primary Years Programme (PYP) school and is a Middle Years Programme (MYP) candidate school currently seeking authorization.  ISB is in the planning stage for a high school program (grades 9-12).

The best time for most students to enter The International School of Brooklyn is in preschool or kindergarten.  In later grades the school requires proficiency in French or Spanish.

It is interesting how more and more New York City private schools are offering the International Baccalaureate, with The International School of Brooklyn, Leman Meritas and the British International School now offering this sought-after program that is accepted around the world.  Many of my international clients seek out the International Baccalaureate because they believe it offers their children flexibility should the family need to relocate in the future.

When choosing an International Baccalaureate Program, families should always check during what grades the program runs.  Many International Baccalaureate schools offer the program only in the last two years of high school (the Diploma Program), whereas many families seek the IB curriculum for their younger children.

The International School of Brooklyn is the only Brooklyn private school that offers the IB throughout.  Brooklyn Friends offers only the Diploma Program.

Big news that the old NYC private school ERB--the WPPSI--is being replaced with a new ERB--the AABL (Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners) at Horace Mann and Riverdale.  As the summer approaches, we will see which other private schools will follow.

From Horace Mann's site:

Horace Mann School requires the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners (AABL) for Kindergarten and First Grade applicants. The AABL assessment is an iPad-administered, child-friendly assessment of a child’s development in verbal and quantitative reasoning, early literacy, and mathematics. AABL was developed for PreKindergarten through Grade 1 applicants by national experts in early childhood literacy, mathematics, and gifted and talented. AABL assesses constructs that are deeply grounded in theory and research to identify a child’s ability and achievement levels. The AABL has been in development since 2011 and has been extensively field-tested during that time.

Our School’s decision to require the AABL for admission ensures that every applicant for Kindergarten and First Grade at Horace Mann School has completed a standardized measure of reasoning and achievement that is psychometrically valid.

Fascinatingly, the new AABL test willl be administered on an iPad.  While this will save money, it fundamentally changes the nature of the test from one administered person to person to a child working alone on an electronic device.

The new ERB test, rather than being pitched as an IQ test, is instead supposed to assess ability and achievement in math and pre-literacy. Sections include math, phonics, and pre-reading skills, subjects that were not previously tested.  So preschoolers now have more to learn to succeed.

Whether the AABL has any longterm predictive value is a complete unknown since the test was only recently developed.  In my own experience, I find that many very bright children are late blooming readers.

We are recommending prep tutors for the ERB and child interviews to our NYC private school consulting clients.  To learn more, NYC top educational consultant.

Speyer Legacy School may have a place for your child.  The school writes Abacus Mom:

As the DOE Kindergarten placement offers are received by your preschool families in the coming week, please keep The Speyer Legacy School in mind for children who may not receive an appropriate match.  We do have about 4 spaces available for Kindergarten this September and continue to welcome applications from qualified candidates.

As you know, The Speyer Legacy School is a growing independent school for advanced learners, meaning that our curriculum is advanced and enriched beginning in Kindergarten. We are located in a beautiful facility at 9th Avenue and W. 59th St. Applicants for Kindergarten must have turned 5 prior to September 1, 2014.

We are accepting applications now only from children qualified for Hunter Round 2 or G&T placement, but who have not secured a seat and families who are moving into NYC, whose children have high ERB scores. At this point in the year we do not have financial assistance available.

I hope we can help to provide an optimal learning environment for some of the bright young minds in your schools.