Explore

Alina Adams

Alina Adams is a New York Times best-selling romance, mystery and historical fiction writer, the author of "Getting into NYC Kindergarten" and "Getting into NYC High School" and mother of three. She believes you can't have true school choice until all parents know all their school choices — and how to get them. Visit her website, www.NYCSchoolSecrets.com.

Lessons Learned from 20-Plus Years of Public School Parent Advocacy

Alina Adams

Parents Wonder: Where Will NYC Get More Teachers, Space to Make Smaller Classes?

Alina Adams

Lessons Learned from 44 Years of Parent-Teacher Conferences

Alina Adams

To Make Sure Gifted Kids Get an Appropriate Education, Put Them in Special Ed

Alina Adams

How Keeping 8th Graders from Taking Algebra Can Derail Their Futures in STEM

Alina Adams

Late-Starting Schools Have Less Time to Prep for AP Exams. Does It Matter?

Alina Adams

How Letting My Kid Fail Empowered Her — & Forced Her School to Fix Its Failures

Alina Adams

NYC Parents Sound Off About Plan to Ban Cellphones in Schools

Alina Adams

NYC Educator Cries Foul on Equity in School Sports, Files Civil Rights Complaint

Alina Adams

NYC Public High School Students Challenge Ineffectual Teacher — and Win!

Alina Adams

Are There Really ‘Fast’ & ‘Slow’ Learners? Study Could Help All Students Succeed

Alina Adams

The Fine Print: Why Some New York City Parents Are Against Smaller Class Sizes

Alina Adams

New Class Size Law Means 17,700 More NYC Teachers. Where Will They Come From?

Alina Adams

Want to Raise MS and HS Achievement at No Cost? Start Classes at 8:30, or Later

Alina Adams

NYC Schools Punish Students for Doing Challenging Work & Reward Minimal Learning

Alina Adams

I Could Get a Spanish Tutor for My Daughter. Why I’m Letting Her Fail Instead

Alina Adams

NYC’s New Gifted & Talented Admissions Brings Chaos — and Disregards Research

Alina Adams

My Humbling Education in What Families Really Want from their Kids’ Schools

Alina Adams

NYC Mayor’s Comments on Charter Cap a No-Confidence Vote in District Schools

Alina Adams

NYC Could Find Out if ‘Gifted & Talented’ Is Good for All Kids. But Will It?

Alina Adams

Should Kids Be Allowed to Retake Tests? A Parent’s — and a Teacher’s — View

Alina Adams

Adams: NYC Middle School Screening — the Great District Divide

Alina Adams

All Struggling Students Deserve Tutoring — Like My Daughter Gets from Her Dad

Alina Adams

Screening Is Back in at NYC Middle & High Schools — But Will It Help or Hurt?

Alina Adams

Why New York Should Apply New Standards for Yeshivas to Public Schools, Too

Alina Adams

Parents Tell What It Would Take to Get Their Kids Back into NYC Public Schools

Alina Adams

NYC Parents Rage: With No G&T Qualifying Test, Selection Process Is Chaos

Alina Adams

When Grades and Test Scores Don’t Add Up, Who Can Parents Trust?

Alina Adams

Adams: Public Funds for Religious Schools? It’s Been Happening in NYC for Years

Alina Adams

Adams: What NYC’s New Remote-Only Schools Could Mean for Educational Choice

Alina Adams

Adams: Masks, Dyslexia, English Learners — Why NYC Families Like Phonics Plan

Alina Adams

Can New Gifted Programs Coax Families Back into NYC's Public Schools?

Alina Adams

Are 4-Year-Olds Really Ready for Kindergarten? Here's a No-Cost Solution

Alina Adams

NYC School Chaos: Parents in Top District Forced Into Admissions Roller-Coaster

Alina Adams

Where Are the Black Kids? Tracking, G&T and NYC's Top High Schools

Alina Adams

Surprising Numbers Behind Which NYC Schools Actually Educate Kids

Alina Adams

COVID Tests, Cold School Lunches & Classroom Chaos After Return From Break

Alina Adams

I Don’t Know Where My Son Is Applying to College & That’s (Kind of) OK

Alina Adams

Online Parent-Teacher Conferences Aren't Great But Still Better Than In-Person

Alina Adams

When to End Masks at School? Amid Surge of Child Vaccines, Parents Talk Timeline

Alina Adams

When Schools, Early Voting & COVID Rules Clash

Alina Adams

Gifted Schools Say They Want Diversity — But Don't Help Students Get There

Alina Adams

Will NYC Parents Strike Over Remote Learning?

Alina Adams

Education Is Not a Zero-Sum Game. So Why Are We Demanding Identical Results?

Alina Adams

What Simone Biles Can Teach Public School Families

Alina Adams

Chaos, not Classrooms, in NYC Summer School Program

Alina Adams

More G&T Classes Would Help School Diversity, Not Harm It

Alina Adams

Do NYC's Mayoral Candidates Care About Education?

Alina Adams

Parents Say NYC Pre-K G&T Admissions Is Now a Confusing Mess

Alina Adams

Lessons HS Wait Lists Teach About NYC, Parents & Charter Schools

Alina Adams

A Golden Opportunity for NYC Schools to Integrate

Alina Adams

Adams: Let’s Put Every Student in a Gifted & Talented Lottery. We Could Expand Opportunity to All Kids — and Show How Low a Bar We Actually Set

Alina Adams

Adams: The Lottery — Parents Fear the Looming Horror of NYC’s New School Admissions Process

Alina Adams

Adams: Whatever You Do For Your Child, You’ll Be Wrong — Why I Gave My Son Permission to Drop Out of High School

Alina Adams

Adams: How to Avoid Integrating Schools — While Ending Up With Segregated Classrooms

Alina Adams

Adams: If the Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few, Why Isn’t NYC Focusing on Kids Who are Learning Remotely?

Alina Adams

Adams: Grading NYC’s New Grading System — What Will Giving Marks Based on ‘Equity, Motivation and Academic Integrity’ Mean for Fairness?

Alina Adams

‘I May Have to Leave the City I Love’: Parents in New York City, Grappling with a Dysfunctional School Shutdown and the Uncertain Academic Year Ahead, Voice Frustration — and Fear

Alina Adams

Adams: How to Avoid Needless COVID School Closings & Treat All New York City Students Equally

Alina Adams

Adams: No Test Scores? No Problem — How NYC Can Screen for Admissions Without Exams and Find Out What Students Have Actually Learned

Alina Adams

Adams: COVID-19 Learning Loss Will Be Devastating for NYC Students. But the School System Will Come Out Looking Just Fine

Alina Adams

Adams: Children Don’t All Learn the Same Way, or on the Same Timetable. So Why Should Our Education System Be One-Size-Fits-All?

Alina Adams

Adams: NYC’s Mayor and Chancellor Want to Reopen Schools. The City’s Teachers Union — and Parents — Aren’t So Sure

Alina Adams

Adams: In New York City, Being Stuck in a Failing School Is Suddenly Not a Good Enough Reason to Transfer

Alina Adams

Adams: How Can NYC Halt an Exodus of Students Worried About Going Back to School in the Fall? Create a Remote Learning District

Alina Adams

Adams: A Math Problem No One Talks About — Why Does the Number of Low-Performing Kids at ‘Good’ Schools Always Equal the Number Who Receive Free Lunch?

Alina Adams

Adams: For Equity’s Sake, Let Kids Who Like Remote Learning Keep Doing Class Online and Let Kids Who Need In-Person Teaching Have the Schools

Alina Adams

What Happens If NYC Eliminates Screened Schools? Amid a Pandemic and Canceled State Tests, Parents Worry About Equity in the District — and Being Locked Out of the Discussion

Alina Adams

Should I Stay or Should I Go? New York Families Debate Fleeing the City Over COVID-19 School Changes

Alina Adams

Adams: Will NYC Students Have to Repeat a Grade? Can They? Should They? Or Should We Rethink What Being in a Grade Means?

Alina Adams

Adams: From Freedom to Focus to Technical Troubles, How 1.1 Million Students and 75,000 Teachers Are Dealing With Remote Learning in NYC

Alina Adams

Adams: NYC School Admissions, Attendance and Coronavirus — How Parents Forced the City to Change Its Applications Policy

Alina Adams

Adams: A Revolutionary School Zoning Plan That Can Increase Diversity, Boost Funding and Make Parents’ Lives Easier

Alina Adams

Adams: With Diversity Plans That Shift Kids From ‘Bad’ Schools to ‘Good’ (and Vice Versa), NYC Admits There’s Not Enough ‘Good’ Education to Go Around

Alina Adams

Adams: An Open Letter to Families Who Don’t Believe in School Choice — Because They Don’t Realize They Already Have It

Alina Adams

Adams: Forward-Rolling Ahead or Spinning Their Wheels? A Question of Equity vs. Equality for NYC School Kids

Alina Adams

Adams: NYC School Kids Get Some Holidays Off but Not Others. Why Not Give Students Personal Days for Their Celebrations Instead?

Alina Adams

Adams: Michael Bloomberg Made Sweeping Changes in NYC Schools as Mayor. What Might He Do as President?

Alina Adams

Adams: In Making NYC School Districts Develop Diversity Plans, It Turns Out the City’s Idea of Diversity Isn’t So Diverse After All

Alina Adams

Adams: Have We Been Misled All This Time About What New York City’s Gifted & Talented and Specialized HS Exams Really Measure?

Alina Adams

Adams: Parents Weigh In on ‘Modest Proposal’ to Ditch Gifted Testing in NYC & Give Accelerated Ed to Any Child Who Wants It

Alina Adams

Adams: A Modest Proposal for Turning NYC School Admissions Upside Down — & Letting Parents Decide the Education They Want for Their Kids

Alina Adams

Adams: 3 Things New York City’s Mayor and Chancellor Can Do Today to Integrate the Public High Schools

Alina Adams

Adams: New York City Has a Plan for Completely Integrating Its Schools. Great. Now Can We Talk About Why Kids Aren’t Learning?

Alina Adams

Adams: Think Replacing NYC Gifted & Talent Programs With Magnet Schools Will Fix Low Student Achievement and Segregation? Think Again

Alina Adams

NYC Has a Gifted Education Crisis. Amid Calls to Expand and Diversify Testing, a More Shocking Stat: 78 Percent of Kids Who Qualify Are Denied Seats at Top Schools

Alina Adams

Adams: Everything NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza Doesn’t Understand About His Own District’s Gifted & Talented Program

Alina Adams