Young Women’s Leadership School, Queens, Queens | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I’m returning for my junior year, and I’ve been in this school for 6 years and let me tell you it is the worst 6 years of my life. The school is dirty, infested, and small. The teachers don’t teach well, expect you to know things they don’t teach, and don’t prepare you for the regents. This school doesn’t hire good teachers. In sophomore year we didn’t learn anything in chemistry and everybody failed the regents. The principal (Ms. Panday) hired a tutor for chemistry and fired him after a week. So we never learned anything. We were forced to teach ourselves and it still didn’t work. We taught ourselves in math because our teacher was rude and gave up on us after one mistake. The principals are shady and they don’t try to help. They only care about reviews. The gym teachers are hypocrites. They have favorites and when one group of kids does something its a problem but when the others do it it’s ok. The bathrooms are dirty, wouldn’t recommend. Guidance counselors don’t guide and the principal cares more about her outfits than the students. Ask anyone and they’d tell you how bad the school is. The principal forces us to smile in pictures so the school looks nice and fun. They care more about how it looks on the outside than how the school is actually running. You can get a 100 average and teachers still complain. You’re never aware of regents exams. Our teacher wasn’t even told that we still had to take a certain exam that wasn’t necessary. Different teachers tell you different things, you never get a sure answer. We have all of our credits but were still forced to take unnecessary regents. The school doesn’t even have enough money for real meals, even though it’s nasty anyway. The lunch was once graham crackers for a whole week. The staff is also racist and problematic.

We bought into the sisterhood promise during an open house, but after a few months of being in the school, we learned this was the opposite of reality. I don’t doubt that this school is great for some, but it was awful for us. We transferred my daughter out after a couple months of name calling, harassment, intimidation, and pushing/shoving.
The classes are very traditional with little innovation to them. The kids are on phones and computers all day it seems. While some of the new teachers are compassionate and energetic, the older ones seem to lack that compassion and excitement.
My daughter was left floundering both academically and personally. No one contacted me to discuss her struggles and only one teacher ever stopped the bullying towards her, and this harassment was directed at her on a daily basis in the classroom, online and literally shouted down the school hallways.
When I relayed her experience to the Dept of Ed, they were shocked as it was all documented on my end, but not the schools.
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If you are looking for a teaching job, I would not recommend this school. I am a former employee. All of my co-workers were awesome and really cared about the students. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the principal and assistant principal. They nitpick at your lessons looking for things that are wrong. And if you have a disagreement with a parent, they will automatically side with the parent. I had an incident with a parent who was very confrontational during parent teacher conferences and demanded a grade change for her child. Instead of supporting me, a letter was placed in my file and Ms. Panday (the principal) changed her grade without my permission. I don’t think that is legal but I didn’t have the energy to fight it. My union rep from TYWLS was no good either. Thank God I was able to go above her head to another union rep. I eventually got the letter removed from my file and my name cleared. Several other good teachers and personal friends of mine have left that school because of the way they have been treated.