Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 4, No. 3 | Small Schools in the Big City: Promising Results Validate Reform Efforts in New York City High Schools, page 4

Succeeding Against the Odds
In the Bronx…
As signs of achievement emerge in growing numbers of small schools, some observers question whether the deck has been stacked. Are higher achieving kids opting for the new schools, they ask, while academically challenged students, special education students, English Language Learners or dropouts, stick with larger schools, dragging down their results?

In fact, two thirds of students are performing below standards in reading and math upon entering the new small schools in New York City, exceeding the city-wide average of academically challenging students. And these schools continue to serve predominantly low-income, African American and Latino students living in neighborhoods of the large (now closed or re-engineered) schools. The new schools do have smaller percentages of students in special education, especially those who were in self-contained classes in middle school, and the schools started in the initiative’s first years enrolled fewer English Language Learners. Two types of new small schools, however, focus specifically on implementing new designs to increase achievement and improve graduation rates by English Language Learners and by students who have previously dropped out of school. They add to the evidence that rigor, relevance and relationships do work under the most demanding circumstances.

Marble Hill School of International Studies, which shares the eighth floor of Kennedy High School with Bronx Law and Finance, has only 16 classrooms for its 417 students, yet on top of the basics, manages to offer five language courses plus Advanced Placement biology, American history, English, Spanish, global history, calculus and more.

This college preparatory school is the vision of founding principal Iris Zucker, a “force of nature,” according to New Visions’ Bob Hughes. Zucker, who came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico as a teenager, was a New York City high school assistant principal who saw the need for an academically rigorous global curriculum for students of multiple nationalities and multiple languages. Half the student body here is made up of English speakers and half of English Language Learners. Last term, a total of 40 native languages were represented. Every student in the school must study a foreign language. For ELL students this means taking English until they reach proficiency, while English-speakers choose from Latin, Japanese, Italian, French and Spanish.

Teaching approaches are varied to meet students’ needs, Zucker says, “but there’s no watering down. Students are brought to the required level of understanding by doing.” It helps that a number of the staff are Peace Corps fellows—returned Peace Corps volunteer educators trained to teach in New York City’s public schools—who speak languages from Ukrainian, Pulaar and Tagalog to Mongolian, Arabic and Kiswahili. Others are New York City Teaching Fellows—recent graduates or career changers who have undergone a rigorous selection and training process and who commit to teaching in areas of highest need.

Without question, Zucker runs a tight ship: there’s a strict dress code, everyone does community service, and major projects in all subjects are required every marking period. But the week is organized to make sure “Wednesday is the funnest time ever,” she laughs, with advisories, seminars and special arts activities on the schedule. Marble Hill cinema students have made their own movie, and last term a musician from Lincoln Center worked with students to write an original school song and turn it into a music video. International exchanges are also a possibility, and students have gone to China, Japan, Senegal, Turkey, England and Nicaragua for study or community service. Zucker is clearly proud of the “rich curriculum we’ve managed to squeeze into such a limited space,” and of the nearly perfect graduation rate achieved by Marble Hill International’s first two graduating classes.

Global Citizenship teaching and advisory staff: (l. to r.) Erin A. Bauer, English; Tara Ryba, social studies; Tene A. Howard and Coco Killingsworth, youth development specialists. As a group they agree that despite “sometimes heartbreaking” needs, it’s unlikely any students at this school will “slip through the cracks.” They all strive to promote the school’s positive culture and say working so closely together has created the sense they are not just a community but a family.

In Manhattan…
Twelve miles down Broadway in midtown, a stone’s throw from theaters and upscale restaurants, another small school gives newly arrived Latino students access to an outstanding and rigorous education. Dedicated to merging its multicultural student body into the diverse world of New York City and beyond, Manhattan Bridges is a transitional bilingual high school for English Language Learners who have lived in the United States for less than three years. “We have 416 students from 20 Spanish-speaking countries,” says principal Mira Sánchez Medina, “it’s a little melting pot.”

Dynamic, innovative and fiercely dedicated, Sánchez Medina is a bilingual biochemist educated in Puerto Rico, who was headed for medical school but switched paths when she discovered her love for education. “Our goal is to take these students and move them forward to becoming bilingual so they can go to college and succeed in life,” she says. “Developing language is what we’re about, and literacy through content is the thrust of the curriculum…We aim to build students’ English speaking, reading, writing and listening skills while maintaining the richness of their native language and their culture,” she explains. “Our expectations are high, and meeting them is not easy.

“The people are warm and the kids are respected,” says South Brooklyn Community teacher Patrick McGillicuddy. “It helps students get past having once been labeled a failure or a dropout.”

“Many of our students aren’t well prepared, meaning they can’t read and write well, even in their native language; these are our Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE). We have SIFE kids here who have missed three to five years of schooling. They need a dual literacy program in which their native language skills are strengthened first, which makes for a stronger transition to more difficult subject matter later on.” The emphasis is still on demanding academics, Sánchez Medina stresses, and every curriculum area is standards-based. “With support, any student can do it,” she maintains, although it means much material must be translated—even if it’s already in Spanish.

“Everyone here works so hard! It’s been painful to develop a school of this nature,” Sánchez Medina admits, “there was no established curriculum, no model to follow. We’ve had to make real sacrifices to get where we are today.” Luckily, Manhattan Bridges’ team of 32 teachers is “very committed, very connected…everyone knows everyone,” she says, so the school is “family-like”—a vital factor for kids with sometimes extraordinary needs. “We have students who live in shelters, and some who are 20 years old,” she points out. “Enhancing their emotional well-being is critical if we are to engage and sustain them through graduation.”

Community support for the school is also plentiful. National Academy Foundation, the school’s lead partner, provides technology and professional development for staff and students; the Pearson Foundation, which supports literacy and digital learning, has supplied computers to the school, so the student-to-laptop ratio is nearly one-to-one, and instead of a chalkboard there’s an interactive Smartboard in every room.

Technology is a powerful partner, teachers here have found. Because teens take to it so readily, it helps them leap the language barrier and facilitates the learning process in all subject areas. Other local resources such as New York University, Time Warner, the Museum of Modern Art and Carnegie Hall offer intercultural experiences with job shadowing, internships, mentoring, scholarships and multidisciplinary projects in literacy, music and art. Manhattan Bridges’ class of 2007, 84 seniors strong, was the first to graduate, with a top GPA of 93.6%.
In Brooklyn…

Next page: On the waterfront, directly facing the Statue of Liberty, the area known as Red Hook has been considered one of the city’s toughest corners for ages.

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