P.S. 100 The Coney Island School

Also known as the Magnet School of Media Arts and Communication, PS 100 sets high standards for students, including rigorous academics and organizational skills to prepare them for middle school. On school surveys, teachers overwhelmingly report that the school supports children's social and emotional growth, as well.

PS 100 is located in a predominantly Russian immigrant community, just a stone's throw from the elevated train tracks. Housed in an old, five-story building with cramped classrooms, the school has had to make clever use of the building's quirky features. Large bathroom lounges, like the kind found in old theaters, have been converted into offices and rooms for support services. The staff lounge is housed in a space once used as a custodian's apartment back when coal needed to be shoveled around the clock to heat the building.Nevertheless, the school is clean and cheerful. The hallways are painted in colorful hues and lined with bulletin boards for children's work.

Special classes include the typical gym, music, arts and dance, but there is also a dedicated science teacher and a full-time librarian. Katherine Maloney was appointed principal in August 2004. Parents are invited to eat breakfast with the principal and to attend workshops on parenting and academics.

The school has an informative website with individual class pages. First-graders keep behavior calendars and are asked to keep reading logs and read for at least 15 minutes per night. Fourth-grade assignments include questions like "Explain the effects of the Stamp Act," and "Should the government allow scientists to use airplanes to test tornadoes?"

Some parents grumble about test prep and pressure for the youngesta theme that crops up on online message boards and to some extent is conveyed through the ho hum School Survey Report. The website features assignments and homework from science and math textbooks for children as young as 1st grade. That said, there are reportedly some very strong teachers here according to the city's Quality Review, although the reviewer also noted that others pitch lessons too generally, missing opportunities for their highest and lowest achievers and catering more to the middle.

Special education: PS 370, which is part of District 75, the citywide district for children with severe disabilities, occupies space on the top floor of the building. Several children from PS 370 are mainstreamed into PS 100 classrooms. The school offers many supports for children with special needs, including SETSS (special education teacher support services), two occupational therapists, three speech therapists, a guidance counselor, a psychologist, a social worker, a family worker, plus self-contained and ICT (integrated-co-teaching) classes for all ages.

Admissions: Neighborhood school.(Lydie Raschka, web reports and school data, August 2014)