Frequently Asked Questions
01
Why should my daughter apply to TYWLS?
Many parents ask our staff what makes TYWLS different from other schools, other than the fact that it is an all girls school. The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria gives your daughter the chance to express herself freely without worrying about criticism from others. While your daughter is at school she will get plenty of support from other girls her age and older girls. We are a small knit school that consists of 600 students in total, which means “no girl is left behind”. And your daughter will always feel comfortable at TYWLS because all the teachers know their students on a personal and academic level.
02
What are outcomes?
Here at TYWLS, we have 10 outcomes that represent where your daughter stands in the classrooms, what are her areas of opportunity, and what is she really great at.
Be precise: This encourages your daughter to be more concise with her writing and be able to express herself in writing or discussion as accurately as possible.
Communicate: This outcome ensures that your daughter is able to present her ideas with little to no repetition. It is also a great way for your daughter to debate or discuss a certain topic eloquently with great understanding, and enhance her opinion and evidence on a certain topic.
Plan: In life, it is important to organize your responsibilities in a neat and fashionable manner, hence we created this outcome to ensure that your daughter is able to meet deadlines and be able to plan for a certain event or project in a way that allows her to meet the due date.
Collaborate: Many students find it difficult to start a conversation, however, in TYWLS we encourage that students step out of their comfort zone and work with their peers in order to better their understanding on a certain topic, and improve their social skills. It also allows the student to share their ideas/opinions and get helpful feedback that will improve their work.
Conclude: This outcome is to see if students are able to summarize and analyze something they read as briefly and accurately and possible. This outcome is especially important in history and English class.
Discern: This is a very important outcome because it allows the student to take information that is given to them and be able to pull out the necessary information.
Create/Innovate: As we grow older our creativity slowly fades, however here at TYWLS we emphasize the importance of creating projects and being able to think outside the box. Many of our teachers give the students opportunities to do a project in whatever way they like whether it is through technology, art, writing or acting.
Investigate: Students will be given the opportunity to do their own research and part of this outcome is being able to choose reliable sources and only researching necessary information. Later in high school, they will be taught how to give credits and reference the books, sites, and pictures that were used in their projects.
03
How does this grading system work and why is it useful?
Our grading system consists of 3 main scores, NY, MS, ES. You’re probably wondering what each of these stand for. NY is an abbreviation of Not Yet. This means that your child is not yet at the level of the required standard. MS is meeting standards, this means that your child is able to do what is required consistently from her teacher. And an ES stands for exceeding standards. This means that your child has taken an extra step and went beyond what the teacher asked for.
The benefits of our grading system is that it targets certain outcomes like Be Precise, Communicate, Plan, Collaborate, Conclude, etc. Our students have various opportunities during the school year improve their grade. For example, if you child currently has an NY in Be Precise in her next project she is able to go back to that outcome and change it into an MS. The great thing about TYWLS is that it gives our girls the chance to always better themselves.
04
How will TYWLS help my daughter prepare for college and the future?
TYWLS is a College Bound Initiative (CBI) school which means we embed the idea of college from the beginning of 6th grade. Students are given the opportunity to visit colleges from the start of 6th grade. Colleges that we have visited in the past include Yale University, Albertus Magnus, Manhattan College, Molloy College, Fordham University, Stony Brook University, St. Francis College, Sacred Heart University, and many more! This gives the students a wide range of colleges that they might be interested in applying to. During 6th - 9th grade we dedicate a whole day to “Cool Women, Hot Jobs” which is a full day of intellectual women who talk about their careers and what field they are in. This allows the students to have a variety of career choices in their future and what they want to major in when they go to college. Most of the courses your child takes at TYWLS is getting her prepared for college. In the 9th grade we begin to emphasize greatly on grades and push our students to take rigorous courses that will make her stand out from other students in other schools. Our outcomes specifically are what colleges are looking for in student. Your daughter will also get a good understanding of college and what is required of her.
For more information Contact Lauren our college bound counselor at:
lquigley@the-cbi.org OR 718.267.2839