Why an Eighth Grade School and Beyond
Parents in New York City are fortunate in having many wonderful schools to consider. When children are young, parents have the role of deciding which school complements their values, meets their children’s needs, and provides a setting that matches their own views of education and learning.
By the eighth grade, however, children have grown to understand themselves both as students and as learners; that is, they understand themselves in terms of their learning styles and temperaments. They are now able to help make their own assessments. When adolescents think about the school they may want to attend for their high school years, important factors for them can be the following: the size of the school, and its educational approach; whether it is single sex or co-ed, public or private, and the quality of its teachers-students relationships. Since they have a good sense of who they are both as students and individual, the eighth graders at Bank Street are able to take responsibility for their education. Part of that academic responsibility is to understand how to choose and shape a learning environment to their best advantage. It can be an empowering experience for a fourteen year old.
While nursery- or kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools have the same academic standards as the comprehensive schools (kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade), the look and feel of an N/K-Eighth school can be very different, with the oldest children in the school being just fourteen years old, there are few direct influences for them to act older than they are. There are no older adolescents to imitate. This allows the children in an N/K-Eighth schools to stay younger longer. In our increasingly fast-paced world with its high stakes and pressures, an environment that specializes in the intellectual, social and emotional lives of children and early adolescents in an important consideration for parents.
To learn more about this topic, please read "The Fall and Rise of the Eighth Grade School” by Stan Brimberg
Where do our Eighth-Grade Graduates Go?
The process of applying to high school begins in the spring of seventh grade and continues in the fall of eighth grade. The Coordinator for High School Guidance works with parents and students to discuss and formulate a list of schools that are appropriate for the child to consider. The lists included below—the high school acceptances list and the college matriculation list—reflect the wide range of interest and styles of our students.