An education group launched a student-friendly guide to the city’s more than 500 public high schools yesterday — highlighting such things as class size and whether uniforms are mandated.
With the click of a mouse, eighth-graders can now learn if they are expected to pass through metal detectors daily, wear uniforms or share classroom space with students from other schools.
They can also learn if a school’s current students are inspired by their teachers and feel safe in common areas.
And students interested in eventually getting college credit through Advanced Placement exams can learn that their odds are much better at Townsend Harris HS (80 percent) in Flushing, Queens, than at Beacon HS (32 percent) in Manhattan.
The new guide is an attempt to go beyond the city Department of Education’s broad A-through-F grading system for schools to highlight other factors that matter to students.
“We think that schools are good at different things and should get praise and criticism for different things,” said Clara Hemphill, founding editor of the New School University’s Center for New York City Affairs Web site, Insideschools.org.
“If you’re a bright student and can cope in a bigger class, you may do very well at Bronx [HS of] Science. But if you need a smaller class size and special-education services . . . you may do well at a place like Food and Finance HS” in Manhattan.
The Web site’s launch was too late to be used by this year’s roughly 80,000 eighth-graders in selecting a high school.
But students are expected to learn Friday which high schools they were matched with for the coming school year.
And since, typically, about 10 percent of students don’t get assigned to one of their top choices — and must enter a second selection round — they can use the site to make that determination.
The following are among other nuances they’ll discover at Insideschools.org:
* At the high-performing Bronx HS of Science, just 67 percent of students reported feeling inspired by their teachers, compared to a citywide average of 76 percent.
* At the A-rated HS of Fashion Industries in Manhattan, only 4 percent of students scored at least a 3 out of 5 on Advanced Placement tests, while just 9 percent took a college course and received a C or higher.
* At Food and Finance HS in Manhattan, graduation rates for special-education students were more than twice the citywide average.
* While just 52 percent of students at The Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance felt inspired to learn by their teachers, a near-perfect 99 percent did at the Unity Center for Urban Technologies in Manhattan.
* Similarly, just 57 percent of students at Martin Van Buren HS in Queens Village, Queens, felt safe in their school’s common areas, compared to 99 percent at nearby Bayside HS.