Are you a parent, teacher or concerned community member that wants to see some positive change in the new York city school system? If you are InsideSchools.org is a site that might interest you.
InsideSchools.org is apart of the Non Profit Organization “Advocates For Children of New York”, which provides support for students, parents and other professionals involved in education. InsideSchools.org offers many features to its users. There is a bookstore, forums to participate in, a list of parent resources, and of course a school search. You can search for school by name, location or by level of education, such as middle school, kindergarten, etc Once you choose the location and educational level of the schools you are looking for InsideSchools.org produces a list that had contact information of all the schools in that area along with the directors name. This makes it easy for you to visit the school and speak directly with the person in charge to get the results you want. InsideSchools.org also feature a glossary and calendar so you can thoroughly understand everything your read and see when there are events and forums that interest you. If you feel connected to InsideSchools.org goals you can give a donation and help InsideSchools.org fight for reforms that will make New York public schools better.
InsideSchools.org In Their Own Words
“We are a group of committed public school parents, children’s advocates, journalists and teachers dedicated to improving public education in New York City. We visit schools, speak with parents and teachers, and comb the media to present an independent and authoritative view of New York City schools. We provide a forum for parents, teachers and administrators to share what they know best about the city’s schools. By helping parents navigate the bureaucracy, and by encouraging them to lobby for improvements in their neighborhood schools, we seek to increase support for public education and to make the public school system more accessible to parents, and more accountable to students.
We are a program of Advocates for Children of New York, a non-profit organization that provides a full range of educational support, legal, and advocacy services for parents, young people, and professionals.”
Why InsideSchools.org It Might Be A Killer
InsideSchools.org has a colorful interface that makes you think of children and elementary education. The site is easy to navigate and has a large amount of information to browse through. InsideSchools.org includes success stories in its “support us” section which is very smart. more people are inclined to give if they have seen examples of success and progress. The glossary is a nice touch to the site, there many be people who don’t know the exact definitions of some academic vocabulary. It is important that people looking at your site understand all of its content. A calendar is also a good way to get people involved and excited about the goals of InsideSchools.org.
Some Questions About InsideSchools.org
InsideSchools.org could add Web 2.0 features so that individuals could network and participate in the site more. Users could add events to the calendar and directly communicate with other users to give them advice or ideas. InsideSchools.org is a helpful site, I know it is a project from “Advocates For Children of New York”, but it could be very useful for other cities as well. I wonder if InsideSchools.org would consider expanding to include other cities or create sister sites. 
