GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Camila Diaz, 17, received a full ride to college from the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund.

Camila Diaz’s summer plans are crammed with the kinds of activities zealous parents schedule for high school juniors.

First there was College Summit, a college application program at Yale, then the LEAD business program at Stanford, and then she’s off to the Dominican Republic to spend time with her family and, of course, study for her SATs.

“That’s Camila,” said her principal at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, Edward Tom. “She’s a planner. She’s probably been thinking about college since she was 5.”

Diaz, 17, is one of five high school juniors nationwide who will receive a full college scholarship from the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund. She is the only New Yorker among them. All New Visions-affiliated schools were encouraged to nominate two students for the award, which goes to academically successful high school juniors who have faced serious challenges.

Diaz plans to apply early action to either Stanford or Yale — colleges, she said, that have strong economics departments and require all students to take certain classes. “I wanted some guidelines in what I had to take,” she said, adding that she’d like to work in finance. (more…)

A play-based kindergarten class. Via Flickr

Kindergarten used to be a time when children dressed up in costumes, built cities out of blocks, and pretended to cook feasts in play kitchens. But now 5-year-olds are more likely to spend their school days practicing basic literacy and math skills.

In fact, kindergartners in New York City spend less than 30 minutes a day on creative play, several recent studies have found.

The shift toward academic kindergarten might boost children’s test scores in the short term but is not likely to make them successful in the long term, according to “Kindergarten in Crisis,” a report released this week by the Alliance for Childhood, a coalition of child development researchers. From the report: 

The power of play as the engine of learning in early childhood and as a vital force for young children’s physical, social, and emotional development is beyond question. Children in play-based kindergartens have a double advantage over those who are denied play: they end up equally good or better at reading and other intellectual skills, and they are more likely to become well-adjusted healthy people.

The trend toward academic kindergarten isn’t news for anyone who’s been paying attention to the city’s public schools for very long. Back in 2006, my former colleague Clara Hemphill tackled the subject in a column in the New York Times. (more…)