GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

A search for P.S. 321, an A-rated school in Brooklyn, shows market rate rents and home prices in the area and a link to the nearest Starbucks.

A founding board member of two New York City charter schools has started his own website to help parents find good elementary schools in neighborhoods they can afford.

Called SchoolFisher, the site grades elementary schools according to its own criteria — mainly students’ scores on the state’s tests — and only includes the top 200. Of those, a group of 50 are highlighted in gold for posting the highest scores of all.

“Like Lake Wobegon’s children, all of the schools on this site are above average,” the site reads.

SchoolFisher’s creator is Eric Grannis, who sits on the board of the Public Prep charter school network and is married to Eva Moskowitz, founder of the Success Charter Network. A longtime charter school supporter, Grannis said he wanted to show parents that they didn’t have to live in the poshest neighborhoods to win entry to the best schools. (more…)

Reversing its earlier findings, the city’s Independent Budget Office has concluded in a new study that most New York City charter schools receive more funding per student than their district school peers.

A year ago, an IBO study found that charter schools housed in public school buildings received $305 less per student than district schools for the 2008-09 school year. Now, the office has revised its methodology and has reached a very different conclusion.

In 2008-09, charter schools in district space were given $701 more per student than traditional public schools, the new study finds. For the 2009-10 school year, that disparity shrunk to $649. (more…)