(Original New York Times Article)

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

While their friends played video games in pajamas or vacationed in the tropics, a dozen sixth graders spent winter break at Elite Academy in Flushing, Queens, memorizing word roots. Time was ticking as they prepared to face the thing they had talked about, dreamed about and lost sleep over for much of the past year: the Hunter College High School admissions exam, a strenuous three-hour test that weeds out about 90 percent of those who take it.

(Original Daily News Article)

By BRIAN KATES

NEW YORK is getting smarter.

Well, at least more of us are getting more education, says the U.S. Census Bureau.

Among New Yorkers 25 and older, 79% had at least graduated from high school in 2005, up from 72% five years ago. And 32% had a bachelor's degree or more, compared with only 27% in 2000.

By GEORGIA LAWTHER-RICHMOND & RAMSI A.WOODCOCK

When you were reading Freckle Juice and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing at the age of ten, others were boning up for the SATs.

“High school? Are you kidding? I’ve been going to Elite since way back,” says junior Jennifer Park, who has been attending Elite Academy since the fourth grade.