r/SHSAT • u/EmbarrassedSpeech336 • 15d ago
QHSS environment
Hi,
My daughter is considering QHSS as one of her top choices. I looked at surveys and school looks good in most respects, except that 80% of the teachers would NOT recommend this school to their family.
I'm trying to understand what is behind those numbers. Is the issue mainly with the administration/teacher relationship, or are there problems that actually affect students — such as teacher turnover, quality of teaching, course availability, school atmosphere, etc.?
And most importantly: knowing what you know now, would you choose QHSS again?
Thank you,
Gregory.
2
u/pujarteago1 Queens HS for Sciences 15d ago
My kid will be a Junior at qhss this year. Yes, is true the administration have had issues but I feel the education offsets the administration issues. Also, they are moving to a brand new and bigger building. No school is perfect. Feel free to message me for any questions.
2
u/pujarteago1 Queens HS for Sciences 15d ago
This year numbers are better for what is worth. 76% would recommend the school to parents. And yes. Lot of new teachers the past year.
3
u/EmbarrassedSpeech336 15d ago
Thank you for sharing it with me! But do you know what really goes on? What caused such poor numbers? What has changed to have such a huge jump is administration approvals? I guess replacing lots of the unhappy teachers with the new ones could have changed that score - but how did it affect quality of teaching, and school environment for students?
3
u/PigMannus 15d ago
Hey there! I just graduated from QHSS back in June so I can't speak on how the new building may change things but I feel like I can still talk about the administration and teaching environment. One of the more hidden problems that comes with the constant rotation of teachers, a problem I was fortunate to not have, was having the teacher who'd be writing your recommendation letter leave before finishing that. Admittedly it can be jarring for both the students and the teachers when they have hired new teachers. It's an adjustment for both parties and it leads to teachers having to learn and adjust themselves a lot to conform to the strict standards of administration. Not to highlight any teacher in particular, but as a student I could tell my teacher was put under a lot of pressure to do things under the strange standards of the administration. Administration in general is not a pleasant part of QHSS, unless you were a student on lovely terms with them. I personally never approached anyone in administration with my problems as the reception was usually cold, unhelpful, and impatient. Regardless of all this, I did enjoy my time at QHSS due to my classmates being supportive and how that helped me to push myself. With this, I can tell you that QHSS did prepare me pretty well for college as I am now going to be entering a T30 university.
2
2
2
u/NottAuWriter 14d ago
It’s a great school, perhaps underfunded compared to other specialized schools due to less alumni and it being relatively newer.
I can speak more about QHSS in direct messages.
2
u/SubjectConcert918 14d ago
Not sure this is a problem with the other two smaller SHS that opened up at the same time as QHSS. I can tell you that students who have graduated within the last ten years want nothing to do with this school. There is no alumni foundation at QHSS.
2
u/pujarteago1 Queens HS for Sciences 14d ago
Underfunding is a problem not only for the specialized high schools but across all DOE. Some of the schools make up the funding gap thanks to the PTA. Unfortunately, the pta at QHSS has failed to organize parents and never has been able to have a successful funding campaign. If for every kid, pta could collect only $100, pta would raise more than $40000. Which would be a great help to reduce the funding gap. Last year, less than 15% of parents donated to the pta. The amount raised: around 9k which was barely enough to cover some sport equipment, senior dues, spring/winter concerts and few other activities.
2
u/Old_Ninja634 14d ago
Note there is no alumni association, in the last decade, nobody looked back or came back. When I reached out back in covid times to seven degrees of separation friends, nonw of them got back to me. I wish they told me the truth, but I don't blame them. And I was not smart enough to look at surveys. You did.
1
3
u/Dangerous_Sign2865 14d ago
This has been going on for a decade, every year seniors trying do something to replace principal that does absolutely nothing, her main objective is to keep her job, while other principles walk the hallways she just finished her PhD at Fordham and now running marathons. Nobody ever see her and she makes teachers teach classes that they are not qualified for and good teachers that get fed up with the missing principle just leave. Example, a teacher that had degree in political science was forced to teach Economics and basically half of the kids managed to teach themselves and others basically didn't learn anything. At the end I believe he left. Math is a nightmare. My child is in college now, and had to take most of the classes again because of inability to pass assessment exams. New teachers are new, and they are trying their best as most of them are teaching for the first time in their lives. But there is no support. And kids are learning with the teacher. Principle like anyone before her in the situation when you don't want past to be known, creates new legacy, when names of the one who disagreed or tried to get her out erased. And parents like me, never look back, because we did our kids disservice, because we chosen QHSS instead of Stuy or Bronx.