Schools - AP - Small schools changing shape of nation's largest school system

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Published in Newsday, Sunday, May 14, 2006

"Small schools changing shape of nation's largest school system"

By NAHAL TOOSI
Associated Press Writer

May 13, 2006, 11:16 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- Five years ago, Sharis Wingfield couldn't have imagined attending a high school that emphasizes sports vocations and teaches kids math using batting averages. She also couldn't have envisioned a scenario where her high school would be smaller than her junior high.

But, through various twists of fate, she landed at the Academy for Careers in Sports _ enrollment 306. She is now convinced a smaller school is better.

"Size is actually the most important factor," said Wingfield, an 18-year-old senior. "The attention you get from the teachers, just that individual time you spend with them ... In a bigger school there's no way I'd be doing as well."

In the last few years, New York's embrace of the small schools model has dramatically reshaped the nation's largest public school system. The city is among scores of districts _ others include Chicago, San Diego and Milwaukee _ that are betting smaller settings will yield higher attendance and graduation rates than mammoth high schools.

The small schools in New York are often highly specialized, with themes ranging from human rights to aerospace. There is the High School for Violin and Dance. The Peace and Diversity Academy. The Food and Finance High School. The schools generally have fewer than 600 students as well as outside partners, such as non-profit groups.

In 2001, the New York City system, which has 1.1 million students, had fewer than 1,250 schools. The addition of new small schools, which primarily serve grades 6 through 12, will swell that figure to nearly 1,450 this fall.

Too many too quickly?

Some education observers say New York is forming too many small schools too quickly. They worry the schools lack a broad enough curriculum, and they question how long interest in this latest school reform movement will last.

"The problem with the current small school movement is that some people think it's a panacea, the silver bullet," said Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, a partner to one of the city's small high schools.

Education administrators say the city's school system, with a graduation rate of 54 percent (others put it even lower) needs emergency surgery, not more therapy. This year, a key group of small schools will graduate their first classes, and officials are betting the rates will top the citywide average.

Small schools aren't a new phenomenon to New York, but this latest wave is much larger, more centrally supported, and more closely monitored than previous versions. It's accompanied by a the phasing out of large, failing high schools _ 20 in seven years _ whose campuses are being handed over to small schools.

The new wave is also better-funded, thanks largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into districts and schools nationwide to promote school reform, including $130 million in New York over the last five years.

Wingfield's school, the Academy for Careers in Sports, is one result.

Pluses and minuses

The school began taking students in 2002, and it is now one of three small schools that shares the campus of what used to be South Bronx High School. Students said the size was the best part because they have better relationships with teachers. Most said they liked the sports theme. The most common complaint was that there weren't enough girls.

Principal Felice Lepore boasts of solid test results and high attendance rates. Yet, space is very tight. The 11th graders use portable facilities outside the main building. The school's courses are largely basic _ it doesn't offer Advanced Placement classes _ with heavy emphasis on standardized exams.

David Bloomfield, who heads an education program at Brooklyn College, said the rush to create small schools has resulted in space crunches. He said some schools end up getting overcrowded because nearby facilities are being converted to campuses of small schools.

The Citywide Council on High Schools recently asked the education department to delay small-school creation until it resolves space and academic questions. The group also posited that the schools may be drawing the best, most motivated students away from other schools.

Garth Harries, head of the Office of New Schools, said space lessons have long been learned, and that newer small schools are being located in underused facilities. Future school construction _ aided by $11.2 billion in funds promised by the state _ could include sites specifically for small schools.

Some sharp criticism

Diane Ravitch, an education historian who has often criticized the school system since it came under the control of the mayor in 2002, said the schools may be too small to adequately prepare students for top jobs or rigorous colleges.

"Since they have a small faculty, they don't have depth of staff in subjects like math, science, can't offer advanced courses, also don't have the range of electives or extracurricular activities, or a choice of foreign languages, or such things as debate club, chorus, etc.," Ravitch wrote in an e-mail.

Education leaders say that when so many students aren't performing at grade level, the basics are the top priority.

"By the same token, the alternative for those kids would be a high school that had a 30 percent graduation rate," schools Chancellor Joel Klein said. "For them, I don't think you're creating it remotely too fast."

The city education department says attendance and promotion rates at the new small schools are higher than citywide averages. The numbers also show the small schools serve a higher rate of minority and academically struggling students. But the new schools are still young. Many don't even have 11th or 12th graders yet.

Gates Foundation representatives say they've seen a range of results in small school efforts nationwide. San Diego and New York are considered successful so far, but other places, such as Oakland, are having a harder time.

In New York, no one is willing to predict exactly when the reshaping will end. Klein said there could be up to 25 new small schools started each of the next three years. Others said a quarter to one-third of the city's high schoolers may eventually learn in small settings. About 14 percent of the city's freshmen enrolled in a small school in 2005.

In the next few months, 15 small schools that started taking students in 2002 will graduate their first classes. These schools are considered models for the dozens created since under Klein's watch. Just how many students will cross the stage is something officials will monitor closely.

Wingfield is among those students slated to graduate. She's headed to Kentucky State University, a much bigger environment. That worries her a little, but not too much.

"I think there should be as many small schools as possible," she said.


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