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LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

December 12, 2006 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 4; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 594 words

HEADLINE: Lafayette Among 5 High Schools to Close

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

The Department of Education said yesterday that it would close five failing

high schools, including Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, where teachers and

students have sparred bitterly with the principal for months.

Four of the schools, including Lafayette, are being run by principals who

graduated from the New York City Leadership Academy, a privately financed

training program created by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Department officials

said that despite those principals' best efforts, their schools had proved

unsalvageable.

The other schools to be closed are Samuel J. Tilden and South Shore, two

other large Brooklyn high schools, as well as two small schools in Manhattan,

Urban Peace Academy and School for the Physical City. The schools will phase out

gradually over three years starting next September, when they will not take new

ninth-grade classes.

The large schools will be replaced by collections of small schools with

about 400 or 500 students each, a signature strategy of the Bloomberg

administration, which has closed or is in the process of closing 17 other large

schools across the city.

Education officials said that the schools to be closed had notably low

four-year graduation rates, did a particularly poor job helping students who

were already behind as incoming freshmen, and proved exceedingly unpopular with

prospective students.

The three large schools have all had safety problems. Extra police officers

and security guards were put into each of them after each school was named an

''impact school,'' although South Shore and Lafayette were taken off the list

after improving.

David Cantor, a spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, said that

during the 2006 high school admissions process, South Shore was considered the

least popular school in the city, with only 1.2 applications for every available

slot, a figure that could have easily included students listing the school as

the last of their 12 choices. At Tilden, he said, 43.5 percent of students

scheduled to graduate in 2006 did so.

But the closing of Lafayette is the one that will probably draw the most

attention. For decades after it opened in 1939, Lafayette, in Bensonhurst, was a

gem of a neighborhood school, with alumni including Larry King and Sandy

In recent years, the school's performance and safety record plummeted; 44.4

percent of the class of 2006 graduated on time. Among other troubles, the school

was the subject of a 2004 consent decree between the city's education department

and the United States Department of Justice, which found evidence of ''severe

and pervasive peer-on-peer harassment of Asian students.''

In a last-ditch effort to turn things around, Jolanta Rohloff was named the

principal at Lafayette in time for the 2005-6 school year. She quickly angered

many of her teachers, who complained that they felt belittled after she offered

them extra money to decorate hallway bulletin boards, pushed recent immigrants

into English-only classes and overruled grades that some teachers gave students.

Efforts to reach Ms. Rohloff at her school and through e-mail messages yesterday

afternoon were unsuccessful.

Mr. Cantor said yesterday that Ms. Rohloff had ''performed extremely well

in highly difficult circumstances.'' He said the principals of all five schools

would remain as principals, although they could be reassigned to other schools.

The preponderance of Leadership Academy graduates among the five, he said, was a

factor of the ''extremely tough'' assignments that the academy's graduates are

often given.

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GRAPHIC: Photo: Famed alumni at Lafayette High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,

include Larry King and Sandy Koufax. (Photo by James Estrin/The New York Times)

LOAD-DATE: December 12, 2006

LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 1 STORY

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

September 7, 2005 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1336 words

HEADLINE: Back to School And Waiting For Politics To Settle Down

BYLINE: By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

BODY:

The New York City public schools open tomorrow effectively in a freeze-frame,

with the fate of the nation's largest school district tied to electoral politics

and, ultimately, the outcome of the mayoral contest in November.

With Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg running strong in the polls, school

administrators are both upbeat and intent on not stirring up trouble as the

city's 1.1 million schoolchildren return to class.

''I think they are very, very confident,'' said David Rogers, an author on

the history and politics of the school system. ''I think this is going to be

more of the same.''

While there are no risky new ventures, many initiatives will proceed as

planned. Fifty-two new, small high schools will open, and a similar number that

opened last September will double in size as each of them adds a new freshman

class.

Stricter promotion rules and extra help for failing students, which were

previously adopted for third and fifth graders, are being expanded to include

seventh graders as part of a $40 million push by the administration to improve

middle schools.

There are also some election-year initiatives, including a new job

counseling program, mostly for students working toward an equivalency degree,

and an expansion of programs for gifted students, especially in neighborhoods

where such programs were scarce.

And yet potential thunderclouds remain. The expansion of small schools,

for instance, threatens to aggravate overcrowding in large, traditional high

schools.

On the labor front, the city's 83,000 teachers and more than 5,000

principals, assistant principals and other supervisors are starting their third

year without new contracts. Many educators are expressing frustration, if not

outright fury, after more than two years without a raise.

There is also rising anger among parents over the increasing focus on

standardized tests. Because of a conflict between state and city officials, the

city's third, fifth and seventh graders will likely have to take two sets of

reading and math tests this year.

Gov. George E. Pataki and the State Legislature continue to fight a court

order mandating more than $5 billion a year in additional aid for the city

schools. An appellate court will hear arguments in the case later this month.

And despite a sharp increase in reading and math scores last spring, nearly

half the city's students cannot read on grade level and exactly half perform

below grade level in math.

Still, after three years of near-constant tumult as the Bloomberg

administration has reshaped nearly every aspect of the system, the city schools

may be on the verge of unprecedented stability in leadership.

Chancellor Joel I. Klein has pledged to stay for a second term if Mayor

Bloomberg is re-elected, which would give him seven and a half years, the

longest tenure of any schools chief since William Jansen held the post from 1947

to 1958.

While an upset of Mr. Bloomberg would doubtless bring major changes, a

Bloomberg victory could bring a different uncertainty: unfettered control of the

schools for a term-limited, lame-duck mayor.

''They will have a lot of power,'' said Mr. Rogers, the author of ''110

Livingston Street: Politics and Bureaucracy in the New York City School

System.'' ''A tendency they had anyway toward not listening and not reaching out

could well be reinforced by an election that from their perspective, validates

what they are doing,'' he said.

Asked in an interview whether he was looking forward to the freedom of

managing the schools in a second term, unencumbered by political concerns,

Chancellor Klein flashed a broad smile.

''There is certainly the opportunity to continue to do very important

things,'' he said, adding: ''I was smiling because I kept thinking about that

Bobby McGee song, right? 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to

lose.'''

Even some critics of Mr. Bloomberg's education policies say they would

prefer that he be re-elected and make corrections rather than have someone else

turn the system upside down again.

''The system is hemorrhaging in some ways,'' said Merryl H. Tisch, a member

of the State Board of Regents and a Democrat, who is supporting Mr. Bloomberg

for re-election despite finding fault with his handling of the school system.

''There has been absolutely no discussion at all about trying to fix

special education, which is responsible for a third of the budget, and bilingual

continues to be a quagmire,'' Ms. Tisch said.

She said she hoped Mr. Bloomberg would also address questions about what

she called an expensive privately financed training academy for principals that

has had mixed results, as well as the problems parents have navigating the

school bureaucracy.

Mr. Klein said the administration was always willing to make improvements.

''One of the things we would definitely want to do, we do it all the time, is to

look at what things could be better,'' he said. ''There are things that need

correction.''

But Mr. Klein also said he was pleased with the administration's record so

far. ''I have pointed out many, many times that the situation when we arrived

was unacceptable, that it would take a decade to truly transform and that I

think we have made significant improvements,'' he said.

While some political analysts have suggested that the mayor might push

harder to reach a contract deal with the teachers to win their union's

neutrality, if not an endorsement, in the mayoral race, Mr. Klein said he

remained steadfast in his demand for concessions on work rules.

''My view is clear: I'd like to have a contract,'' he said. ''But my view

is equally clear that in the absence of meaningful school reform, I, at least,

am not going to support it.''

Mr. Klein specifically complained about the contractual right of

''excessed'' teachers -- those who lose a position for any number of reasons,

like a decline in enrollment -- to claim a vacant position anywhere in their

community school district, even if a principal wants to hire someone else for

the job.

''It's unfair, disruptive, irrational and it should be changed,'' he said,

adding that teachers should be able to find jobs without forcing themselves on a

school. ''If you can't find a slot in our school system,'' he said, ''I think

it's a pretty good indication that you shouldn't be here.''

Mr. Klein boasted that one sign of success was that fewer teachers,

principals and other administrators left the system in the past year. But union

officials countered that this was because in the previous two years, large

numbers of veterans had retired in frustration.

Jill S. Levy, the president of the Council of School Supervisors and

Administrators, the union representing principals and assistant principals, said

the administrative ranks were now decidedly younger and less experienced.

''They hardly have the foundation and experience to do anything but to

concentrate on staying alive in this system,'' Ms. Levy said. ''They are

exhausted already.''

Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers' union, said teachers were

demoralized by the lack of a new contract. ''People range from being dispirited

to infuriated,'' she said, ''particularly since the mayor is running upon the

teachers' record. It's teachers in the classrooms that do this work.''

Given the political landscape, Ms. Weingarten said she expected the

administration to play it safe this fall. ''It's not surprising that they are

not taking any chances this year,'' she said. ''They want to have a smooth

opening.''

Eva S. Moskowitz, the chairwoman of the City Council Education Committee,

said her office had received a number of calls with traditional early September

complaints, including those of students not yet assigned to a school.

But Ms. Moskowitz, herself a candidate for Manhattan borough president,

said there had not been the level of activity that accompanied the start of

school earlier in Mr. Bloomberg's term.

''Everything is sort of in a holding pattern,'' she said.

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GRAPHIC: Photo: To prepare for classes, teachers took pointers yesterday from a

reading specialist, Ernie Maginsky, with back to camera, at the Future Leaders

Institute in Harlem. (Photo by Librado Romero/The New York Times)

LOAD-DATE: September 7, 2005

LEVEL 1 - 2 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

September 5, 2006 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1516 words

HEADLINE: Back to School In a System Being Remade

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

New York City's 1.1 million public school students return to the classroom

today with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg entering a new phase in his overhaul of

the education system -- pushing to change the management culture and prove that

mayoral control of the schools is yielding sustainable gains in student

performance.

For the first time this fall, 321 principals, more than a fifth of those in

the system, will no longer answer to a superintendent and will have greater

authority over their budgets, staff and instruction. In exchange, they have

agreed to meet performance targets and could face dismissal in two years if they

fail.

Partly to give those principals more money for their schools, the city has

cut the number of jobs in the school bureaucracy by 328, worth $87.5 million in

savings. Many of those jobs were in the 10 regional offices that Mr. Bloomberg

himself created. Consultants are still looking for ways to make more than $100

million in additional cuts.

The experiment with principals is taking place even as the city is bitterly

at odds with the principals' union over a contract, which expired more than

three years ago. Thirty-five new small middle schools and high schools are

opening, bringing the total created under Mr. Bloomberg to 184.

New programs for struggling high school students are also starting. Next

summer, the city plans to give all schools progress reports with grades of A

through F, based largely on an analysis of student test scores.

Additionally, 12 new charter schools are opening, a movement that Schools

Chancellor Joel I. Klein would like to see flourish, saying the schools, which

are largely free from city oversight, embody principles of autonomy and

accountability that he wants for the entire school system. But the city will

have to plead its case for more charter schools with Albany, which until now has

refused to lift the statewide cap of 100 charter schools.

''When we came into office, I think conventional wisdom was that you could

not do anything to improve big-city public school systems,'' Mayor Bloomberg

said last week, ''and I don't believe that that's the zeitgeist out there

anymore.''

Still, the challenges are formidable. Critics say that the mayor is overly

concerned with structure as opposed to teaching and learning, that the emphasis

on standardized testing has become too heavy and that he barrels ahead without

building a constituency for his policies.

This term, Mr. Bloomberg will be judged not against the failures of the old

system but against his own promises and early successes.

''This is the time when a lot of his ideas will come to roost, and we'll

begin to assess how much sticking power they have and what impact they're

actually going to have on the way children learn,'' said Joseph P. Viteritti, a

professor at Hunter College. ''He's got a limited amount of time to make happen

what he said he was going to make happen. The results are still not in.''

On state reading and math tests, scores have risen in the city, as they

have statewide, but middle school performance remains problematic. In 2005, 59.5

percent of city fourth graders were considered proficient in English, while 77.4

percent were in math. Among eighth graders, by contrast, 32.8 percent were

proficient in English and 40.8 percent in math. The overall four-year graduation

rate, by city figures, has risen from 50.8 percent in 2002 to 58.2 percent in

2005. The mayor's own staff members concede, however, that the number is still

appallingly low, particularly among black and Hispanic students. The state,

which counts graduations differently, puts the city graduation rate even lower,

at 43.5 percent.

Since he came into office, Mr. Bloomberg has put education at the center of

his mayoralty. In his first four years, he won control of the schools and

overhauled the bureaucracy, supplanting the city's 32 community school districts

with a centralized network of 10 regional offices and the Board of Education

with a panel whose majority he controls.

He moved the school system's headquarters from Brooklyn to the Tweed

Courthouse, in City Hall's backyard, and established test-based promotion

criteria in the third, fifth and seventh grades. He started closing large,

failing high schools and replacing them with small schools, and he raised more

than $300 million from private business.

Now Mr. Bloomberg and his hand-picked chancellor, Mr. Klein, who is poised

to become the longest serving chancellor in decades, are starting to lift some

of the top-down controls they imposed. They are also seeking to show sustainable

results and build enough momentum to keep their precepts in place well beyond

the Bloomberg mayoralty.

''There's a sense of permanence and that the volatility that was

distracting and difficult during the first four years is hopefully behind us,''

said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, an

association of business leaders.

Chancellor Klein said last week that he was intent on moving the school

system ''from a culture of excuse to a culture of accountability.''

''Our parents will come to see that the information they're getting, the

quality education their kids are getting, the sense of what it's like at the

school, is going to change,'' he added. ''And I think our parents will insist on

sustainability.''

Mr. Klein and the mayor are also seeking to transform the physical

landscape with a $13.1 billion capital plan, the city's most ambitious school

construction proposal to date. This year, the public school system is opening

eight new buildings, including several former Catholic schools. One of the

beneficiaries is the Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science, which

will finally get its own science lab after two years of improvising.

''We cut open frogs, we cut open fetal pigs,'' said Kenneth Baum, the

principal. ''Imagine doing that without a sink and keeping everyone safe and

clean.''

When it comes to teachers, the city has taken steps toward merit pay,

allowing ''master teachers'' to earn more money by mentoring less experienced

colleagues. Mr. Klein attracted 102 new math, science and special-education

teachers by offering housing subsidies of up to $14,600. Under federal law, the

city is required to ensure in 2007 that all its teachers are licensed in their

subject areas. Mr. Klein estimated in an interview that the city was still a few

thousand teachers short of that goal.

Mr. Klein has begun efforts to court parents, a sore spot of the first

mayoral term, when a number of them complained of feeling shut out. He has begun

meeting regularly with the executive board of the Chancellor's Parent Advisory

Council, a parent organization that has been sharply critical of some of his

policies.

''They're actually doing some good things, but the perception of the parent

communities is that they don't care about their opinions, and that's really a

problem,'' said Elisa Hyman, executive director of Advocates for Children, a

nonprofit group.

Mr. Klein said his emphasis on data would enhance parents' understanding of

their children's schools. The new school report cards, for example, will not

simply judge this year's third graders against last year's, but the progress

individual children make over time. So a popular school could receive a poor

grade if its students come in at high levels but fail to make strides.

The most experimental move of the new school year is the effort to give

principals more authority, part of Mr. Klein's effort to move from a ''culture

of compliance to a culture of performance.''

The change is taking place at a time when the chancellor and the unionthat

represents both principals and assistant principals are openly feuding. Last

week, Mr. Klein fired off a letter to the city's principals implying that 44

assistant principals who lacked jobs were so weak that no school wanted them.

Jill S. Levy, president of the union, the Council of School Supervisors and

Administrators, said the assistant principals were out of work not because they

are incompetent but because their schools have been closed or restructured. She

has accused the chancellor of demoralizing principals by forcing them to go more

than three years without a new contract.

''Empowerment is essential and critical, but I think empowerment without

the appropriate resources and support may be detrimental,'' Ms. Levy said. ''At

some point one has to look at stability, and right now you can't really perform

in a system that's so unstable as not to know what's coming down the pike.''

Some school system veterans say the chancellor is unshackling principals at

a moment when many of them are young and inexperienced, and may not know how to

purchase services and supplies. But Nancy Gannon, principal of the School for

Democracy and Leadership in Brooklyn, said this was the moment she and many

others had been craving.

''Before I became a principal, what I heard from so many principals was,

'Well, if I could do it my way, I could do X or Y,' '' she said. ''Finally all

bets are off.''

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GRAPHIC: Photo: Joseph Cox, a sixth grade humanities teacher, setting up his

classroom in the new Bathgate Educational Complex in the Bronx. The $52 million,

140,000-square-foot building will house four schools this fall. (Photo by Marko

Georgiev for The New York Times)(pg. B4)

LOAD-DATE: September 5, 2006

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

June 28, 2006 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1316 words

HEADLINE: Small Schools Show Concern Over Proposal To Swap Land

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

The Julia Richman Education Complex, a massive brick building on East 67th

Street, is a veritable pilgrimage site.

It is here that they come -- delegations from Stanford University, from the

Baltimore City Public School System, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

-- to see the country's premier example of a large, failing urban high school

turned into a peaceful campus of successful small schools.

But now, the city is considering a plan to hand the Julia Richman building

over to Hunter College in exchange for a larger parcel of land that the college

owns more than 40 blocks south. Since word of the proposal slipped out in recent

weeks, principals, teachers and parents at the small schools have mobilized

against it, saying it would destroy a delicate educational ecosystem and a

potent, phoenixlike symbol of possibility.

''You wouldn't take Carnegie Hall and move it to Queens,'' said Ann Cook,

co-director of Urban Academy, one of the small schools in the Julia Richman

complex. ''We're not widgets.''

Jamie Smarr, an assistant to the deputy chancellor for finance and

administration for the city school system, said Hunter first approached the city

last summer about trading Julia Richman for its Brookdale campus, on East 25th

Street and First Avenue. He said that the discussions were still preliminary,

but that the small schools would benefit from the arrangement because Hunter,

which hopes to build a science and health center near its main campus on East

68th Street, would construct a modern building for the small schools downtown.

''This is an opportunity to get a brand-new, state-of-the-art building,''

Mr. Smarr said. ''I think a lot of the concerns are about fear of change.''

Administrators, parents and residents of nearby apartment buildings say

their fears are justified. Neighbors say that the area needs more public

schools, not fewer, and that the proposed science center could be a hulking

tower that would cast a shadow over their apartments and nearby St. Catherine's

Park. Parents say uprooting Julia Richman would send a discouraging signal to

the dozens of small schools that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has created in

recent years, using Julia Richman as the model.

And a growing chorus of critics say Hunter should be ashamed of even

considering uprooting a crop of successful schools, noting that it would never

displace its own publicly financed elementary and high school, on East 94th

Street.

''The news is spreading like wildfire,'' said Elizabeth Rose, who lives in

an ivy-covered building across the street from Julia Richman. ''When you see

what the city is doing to other schools, you get very concerned about what they

might do to your child's school.''

Julia Richman opened more than 80 years ago, and was for many years a

prestigious high school for girls. It fell apart during the 1970's fiscal

crisis, when the city laid off thousands of teachers. By the early 1990's, the

school was called ''Julia Rikers,'' as in Island, and had a 37 percent

graduation rate, the lowest in Manhattan. School lore has it that unruly

students were kept in cages until the police arrived.

School officials hatched a plan to replace Julia Richman with a collection

of small schools, and by 1996, six new schools had supplanted the old one.

Sharing the building now are the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade Ella

Baker School, where some parents who work in the neighborhood send their

children, along with a program for autistic children known as P226M, and four

high schools. They are Talented Unlimited, a performing arts school; Urban

Academy, known for working wonders with students who have not succeeded at other

high schools; Vanguard High School, which like Urban Academy avoids traditional

standardized tests and where the principal has painted his office bright purple;

and Manhattan International High School, for recent immigrants.

''It's got real roots in the community now,'' said Sherry Jacobs, who lived

blocks away from Julia Richman for a quarter-century and remembered crossing the

street to avoid walking too close to the old school. Mrs. Jacobs and her husband

raised $110,000 to build the small schools a library, the destruction of which

would be ''heartbreaking,'' she said.

More than 1,000 Julia Richman parents and staff members have signed a

letter calling for the school to stay put.

''As all close observers know, a school is never just a physical structure,

there's a culture to every educational setting,'' the letter says. ''How can the

Department of Education consider uprooting an exemplary educational complex, one

of the true gems of the system, which has received nationwide recognition and

won numerous awards?''

Some Julia Richman supporters are directing their fury at Hunter and its

president, Jennifer J. Raab, who was chairwoman of the city's Landmarks

Preservation Commission under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

''It's very disturbing to me that Hunter College would dislocate young

children in order to accommodate a program for themselves,'' said Jacqueline

Ancess, co-director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools

and Teaching at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Ms. Raab's office referred calls to Meredith Halpern, a Hunter spokeswoman,

who said many of the details would be worked out at a meeting in the next month

or so attended by Hunter and city officials. She described the plan as ''one of

the best things to happen to the Hunter community.''

Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City University of New York, said that

it would be ''fabulous for Hunter'' if things worked out, but that a lot would

depend on the finances involved.

Asked if the proposed science center would be 16 stories or taller, as some

in the neighborhood say they have heard, Dr. Goldstein responded, ''Oh, no no

no,'' adding, ''This is so speculative.''

City officials said the plan hinged on whether Hunter can come up with

enough money to build both its new science center and a new building for the

Julia Richman schools, which Mr. Smarr said would cost at least $100 million.

Mr. Smarr said parents, students and staff members would be involved in

designing the new school, which would not open before September 2011.

Dr. Ancess, who has studied the Julia Richman complex, said the small

schools would suffer if moved, no matter how posh their new quarters.

''You feel very deeply connected to your home, you have a sense of safety,

you know the place, you make an investment in it, you decorate it,'' Dr. Ancess

said. ''They've designed that building, they put their blood, sweat and tears

into it, and they're just supposed to walk away like they didn't?''

Michelle Fine, a distinguished professor of psychology at the CUNY graduate

center who has also studied Julia Richman, said demolishing the building would

be ''dispiriting'' to Mr. Bloomberg's newer small schools and would set back

their efforts to weave themselves into the fabric of their own neighborhoods.

''The Julia Richman complex epitomizes what the mayor hopes to create

citywide, that is a building that was once producing enormously adverse

educational outcomes that has now been resurrected intellectually, spiritually,

morally, aesthetically,'' she said.

Critics also deride the secrecy they say has shrouded the plan. School

officials say that they learned of it from local politicians, not Hunter or the

school system, and that Mr. Smarr met with them only after they requested more

information.

''I have no confidence from all the secrecy that's gone on that they even

think parents and teachers and students could be involved in the design'' of a

new building, said Herb Mack, the principal at Urban Academy.

Mr. Smarr said that officials were not being secretive about what he

described as ''an opportunity to do something very special.''

''It's a free school,'' he said.

URL:

GRAPHIC: Photos: Ella Baker School, for elementary school-age children, part of

the Julia Richman complex on East 67th Street. Below, Jesse Collins, 18, left,

and Dakota Russell, 16, at Urban Academy, and Louis Delgado, right, the

principal at Vanguard High. (Photographs by Ruby Washington/The New York

Times)(pg. B9)

LOAD-DATE: June 28, 2006

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

April 28, 2006 Friday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 4; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 525 words

HEADLINE: Annenberg Grant to Help Smaller Schools

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

The Annenberg Foundation said yesterday that it would donate $20 million to a

nonprofit group working to bolster New York City's small middle and high

schools, which are a hallmark of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to turn

around the troubled system.

The group, New Visions for Public Schools, has helped create 112 of the

more than 200 small schools that have opened throughout New York City since

1993.

''I think that there's both anecdotal as well as hard evidence now that

small schools are producing some very good results for students and teachers

and school staff alike,'' said Dr. Gail Levin, executive director of the

foundation. ''These small schools are here to stay. We want to be part of the

story that allows them to stay.''

In recent years, Mayor Bloomberg has opened 149 small middle and high

schools. The small schools, which generally have fewer than 500 students, are

one of Mr. Bloomberg's chief strategies for improving the city's high school

graduation rate of about 53 percent. To support this effort, Mr. Bloomberg has

raised more than $117 million from philanthropists, most of it from the Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new small schools are modeled in part on an earlier generation of

such schools created in the 1990's with $25 million from the Annenberg

Foundation, the family foundation of the late Walter H. Annenberg, a former

ambassador to Britain, and his widow, Leonore. Those older small schools have

generally not benefited from the money raised by Mr. Bloomberg for the newer

small schools, and critics of Mr. Bloomberg's small schools effort have

asked whether the new schools will suffer when their private money dries up.

The most recent Annenberg grant will help sustain existing schools, rather

than start new ones.

''We went through an extensive development process with them when they got

these schools up and running,'' Richard I. Beattie, chairman of the New Visions

board, said of the earlier small schools. ''You want to come back if you can,

and here we have the ability to do so, to regenerate them, pump them up again

and give them some additional resources.''

Robert Hughes, president of New Visions, called the Annenberg grant a

''significant grant for sustainability.''

The money, to be given over eight years, will be used to help recruit

teachers, improve teacher retention rates, provide coaches to principals and

help parents become more involved in their children's schools. There will also

be a push to help schools use data effectively and share their best practices.

''The shaping of schools is an evolving effort,'' Dr. Levin said. ''It has

taken many years to get to this point, and we feel as if the work is not

finished, not actually by a long shot.''

Small middle and high schools are a stark departure from the 3,000-plus

mammoth high schools that they are in some cases replacing. The new schools,

many of which are linked to nonprofit and community groups and are centered on

themes, from law to sports to ''social justice,'' are thought to be more

intimate and manageable, erasing the possibility that students can slip through

high school unnoticed.

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LOAD-DATE: April 28, 2006

LEVEL 1 - 10 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

February 2, 2006 Thursday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 501 words

HEADLINE: 36 More Small Schools Due In September, Mayor Says

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

Thirty-six small middle schools and high schools, many with specialties

ranging from mathematics and technology to hospitality and tourism, will open in

September, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday.

The creation of small middle schools and high schools is central to Mr.

Bloomberg's plan to improve New York's high school graduation rate, which for

years has hovered just above 50 percent. The new schools, which will be

concentrated in Brooklyn and the Bronx, are the latest round of small schools

to be opened by Mayor Bloomberg with the help of nonprofit groups, colleges and

millions of dollars from philanthropies, including the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation.

The schools announced yesterday will start with 100 students in the sixth or

ninth grade or both, and will eventually grow to between 300 and 600 students --

a size that will, it is hoped, foster a sense of intimacy to make it more

difficult for students to slip through the cracks.

Among the new schools are the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism High

School, which will join a collection of small schools that have replaced

Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn; the East-West School of International

Studies, which will open in Queens and teach children proficiency in Asian

languages; and the DreamYard Preparatory School, whose principal, Rod Bowen,

said he planned to use visual arts and theater to make math and other academic

classes come alive.

''These small schools are having a big impact on their students, helping

them get the skills to succeed in college, at work and in life,'' Mr. Bloomberg

said, his voice reverberating through the auditorium of Junior High School 50 in

Brooklyn, which next year will share its building with the Academy for Young

Writers.

He added, ''These small schools have been a key part of our success in

closing the intolerable achievement gap between races and ethnicities.''

Thirteen of the new schools will be high schools, 13 will serve students in

grades 6 through 12 and 10 will be middle schools (sixth through eighth grade).

In the first years of the mayor's small schools program, most new schools

were inside the buildings of large, failing high schools because of a lack of

space elsewhere and a desire to phase out the old schools. Critics complained

that the sites caused crowding in the old schools and hampered the new ones.

Of the latest round of schools, only four will be in newly leased or

constructed buildings. The rest will share space with other schools. The

locations of four of the new schools will be announced soon, officials said.

In making the announcement, Mr. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I.

Klein said their small-schools effort had already borne fruit. Last year, they

said, ninth graders who entered new small schools were more likely to perform

below grade level than students at high schools citywide -- but small school

students, they said, attended school more frequently and were more likely to be

promoted to the 10th grade.

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GRAPHIC: Photo: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at Junior High School 50 in Brooklyn

yesterday, announcing a new round of small schools. With him were Schools

Chancellor Joel I. Klein, right, and Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott. (Photo by

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)

LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2006

LEVEL 1 - 13 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

May 3, 2005 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 2; Metropolitan Desk; Getting Smaller To Improve The

Big Picture; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1875 words

HEADLINE: Trying to Lift Performance By Shrinking City Schools

SERIES: LEARNING CURVE: History Lessons

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

BODY:

The Central Park East Secondary School, one of New York City's first small

public high schools, was once a beacon of educational innovation. But in the two

decades since it opened, the graduation and attendance rates have plummeted to

below citywide averages.

Even the founding principal has not visited in years, saying she finds the

school's fate heartbreaking.

In Chelsea, the New York City Museum School, another pioneering small

school, is thriving, even as it struggles with financial difficulties.

Students there make regular pilgrimages to museums throughout the city, though

they spend less time on such trips than they did a few years ago.

One of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's chief strategies for transforming the

city's school system is the creation of 200 small schools, including 53

secondary schools that opened in September. But the idea is not new -- there

was an explosion of such schools in the early 1990's -- and a look at this older

generation of small schools shows that size itself has not been a silver

bullet.

There has been no long-term comprehensive study of the outcomes of New York

City's early small schools. But interviews with teachers, current and former

principals and parents indicate a wide range of results and suggest that even

the hallmarks of small schools -- better attendance and graduation rates --

are not guaranteed.

''If I look at the small schools that existed at that time, about half are

mediocre or worse than mediocre, and half are better than mediocre,'' said

Deborah Meier, the founding principal of Central Park East, who is now an

author, lecturer and consultant.

Some of the small schools fell victim to their own success, like Beacon

High School on the West Side, which, with more than 1,000 students, is no longer

so small. Some reaped praise for years, only to struggle when their founders

were replaced by administrators who did not quite get the school's mission.

In some cases, partnerships with community organizations fell apart. In

others, the private money that helped get special programs off the ground dried

up, forcing cutbacks.

These varying outcomes -- including the experiences of some small schools

that had to be closed -- offer cautionary lessons that some of the most vocal

champions of small schools say have not been heeded by officials leading the

current initiative.

''Every school reform comes as if it has no history,'' Ms. Meier said. ''We

just recycle a previous reform package, we give it a slightly different name,

sometimes not even a different name, and we don't go back to look at what

happened the last time we did this.''

Still, officials working on the current initiative say that a vast majority

of old small schools, if not ideal, are better than the large failing ones now

being replaced. At the big schools being transformed into small school

campuses, four-year graduation rates for the class of 2002 ranged from 23

percent at Bushwick High School, in Brooklyn. to 46 percent at South Bronx High

School. Citywide, the average was 51 percent.

In endorsing small schools, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I.

Klein have cited a wide body of research and local statistics showing that

smaller schools yield higher attendance, promotion and graduation rates. But the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has financed hundreds of small

schools across the country in recent years, has found some of the academic

results disappointing.

Michele Cahill, a chief architect of Mr. Bloomberg's small schools plan,

said that she and other city education officials had taken steps to ensure that

the new schools would fare better -- by improving principal training, requiring

rigorous curriculums, demanding high-quality teaching, building stronger

community partnerships and imposing strict accountability measures.

''We're doing it differently,'' Ms. Cahill said.

Robert L. Hughes, the president of New Visions for Public Schools, a

nonprofit education reform group that has been at the forefront of New York

City's small-schools effort for more than 15 years, said that the early

small schools suffered from inconsistent support. Among past chancellors,

Joseph A. Fernandez and Ramon C. Cortines were cautious supporters, while Rudy

Crew was a vocal skeptic.

This time, the city has created a special Office of New Schools, headed by a

chief executive, Kristen Kane, who reports directly to the chancellor.

But critics say much remains the same. The city's earliest small school

efforts included several ill-fated attempts to break up large, dysfunctional

high schools, a precursor to many of the troubles that the Bloomberg

administration has faced in its own effort to phase out big schools over the

last two years.

In 1994, for instance, the city turned Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn

into three schools. All were placed on the state's list of failing schools and

are now being phased out for poor performance.

At the four small schools created in 1994 to replace Andrew Jackson High

School in Queens, four-year graduation rates now range from 53.8 percent, about

the same as the citywide average, to a more impressive 75.5 percent.

Research by, among others, Jacqueline Ancess of the National Center for

Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching at Columbia University's Teachers

College, found that small schools suffered when forced to take root in large

school buildings, alongside other schools with conflicting cultures and

incompatible approaches to learning.

Commenting on the current effort, Dr. Ancess said she has been dismayed to

see small schools crippled by their placement in buildings with metal

detectors and a strong police presence. ''When they're put in a building with a

school that has an antithetical culture,'' she said, ''this is a recipe for

failure.''

Some successful small schools were forced to grow over time or to take on

a different mix of students, defeating their original purpose. In 1993, for

instance, Beacon High School opened as a college preparatory program, intended

for a mix of students with varying abilities. Enrollment was supposed to be

capped at 500.

But it quickly became one of Manhattan's most popular schools. To get in,

many top students exercised a special provision in city admissions rules

granting them automatic seats. Over time the school swelled to more than double

its originally intended size, and this year officials formally switched it to a

''screened'' program, meaning that only top students are admitted.

Middle College High School, on the campus of Medgar Evers College in

Brooklyn, had a similar experience. The school, which opened in 1993, was

supposed to have 640 students. It now has nearly 1,000, and its schoolyard is

filled with portable classrooms.

The school was designed to provide an intensive academic program for

college-bound students. But last September, the central administration sent more

than 100 of the city's lowest-performing students to the school without any

extra support.

Still, some small schools have experienced far worse problems. The Local

1199 School for Social Change opened in 1993 in partnership with the hospital

workers union, was so troubled that it had to be shut down. The union and New

Visions for Public Schools, which helped create the school, had clashed with

education officials, including Chancellor Crew, over staffing, admissions and

other issues.

In Brooklyn, Metropolitan Corporate Academy's partnership with the

investment bank Goldman Sachs was of no help this school year, when the computer

lab and the boys' bathroom were in such disrepair that they had to be closed

temporarily.

Another issue raised by the early small schools was how to define

''small.'' Experts still disagree.

Some of New York's earlier small schools with the best results had 200 or

fewer students. But the majority of new small schools will eventually serve

more than 400 students -- 108 per grade.

The Humanities Preparatory Academy, which enrolled its first students in

1993, has only 185 students, all of whom can cram into a single large classroom

for special occasions, like a recent awards ceremony in which students were

lauded for such attributes as ''commitment to humanity.'' During staff meetings,

the principal, Vincent P. Brevetti, and the school's 18 teachers sit in a

circle, deciding policies by consensus -- something that would be difficult

with a larger group.

One common thread among the more successful early small schools is a core

theme or mission. International High School in Long Island City, Queens, which

opened in 1985, has enjoyed consistent success, focusing closely on serving

recent immigrants. The school, which was intended for 460 students, has a

student body of 468.

Another example of success is the Museum School. Shortly after it opened in

1994, The New York Times reported that it ''could become the theme school par

excellence,'' and in many ways it is.

After lessons on Darwinism that incorporated trips to the American Museum of

Natural History, Devenia Brathwaite, 18, who said she hated biology in middle

school, decided she wanted to major in it in college. Laura Fearon, 18, who said

she was failing at the huge Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens,

transferred to Museum, and credits its intimate environment with her subsequent

success.

''Your teacher knows you,'' she said.

One March afternoon, a group of students boarded the subway for the Brooklyn

Museum, where they pondered Buddha sculptures, Last Supper paintings and Muslim

prayer rugs as part of a lesson on world religions.

But in recent years the school has wrestled with difficulties that are

emblematic of other small schools' struggles. Museum's founding co-directors

were both hired away to help create and support other small schools, resulting

in a rocky transition.

Then there was a reliance on outside money and resources. Just as today's

small schools are opening in partnership with nonprofit groups, like the

College Board and the Roundabout Theater Company, the Museum School teamed up

with several museums. Now that the school is no longer new, it receives less

attention from the museums, some of which are helping newer small schools.

''It takes real work to not only establish a new institution, but to

maintain the institution,'' said Pat Conway, a parent. ''The Department of

Education doesn't seem to be learning from the experience of having dealt with

our schools and learned that it really is more expensive to run a small school

than a large school.''

Still, if every new small school were like the Museum School, parents

would almost certainly be pleased.

The same cannot be said, however, of Central Park East Secondary.

''One by one, various quality-control issues at the school became harder to

uphold,'' Ms. Meier, the founding principal, said, citing increased enrollment,

the departure of experienced teachers and the watering-down of special programs

in reaction to a greater emphasis on standardized testing.

''I stopped visiting,'' she said. ''It was too painful.''

Learning Curve

Articles in this series are exploring the process and effect of opening

dozens of small schools this year in New York City. Earlier articles are

available online at education.

URL:

GRAPHIC: Photos: William Goris, a ninth grader at the New York City Museum

School, on a class visit to the Brooklyn Museum. (Photo by Marilynn K. Yee/The

New York Times)(pg. B4)

Christine Olson, above, teaching a global history class at Humanities

Preparatory Academy in Manhattan. Below, the New York City Museum School

students Elena Salomon-Uffer, left, and Janelle Rosario visit the Brooklyn

Museum. (Photo by Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)(pg. B1)

LOAD-DATE: May 3, 2005

LEVEL 1 - 16 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

February 16, 2005 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 361 words

HEADLINE: Gates Donates $28.5 Million For Support of Small Schools

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $28.5 million to create and

support small secondary schools in New York City, the foundation said yesterday.

The announcement brings the foundation's investment in the city's public

schools to more than $113 million, most of which has gone toward schools

designed for no more than 500 or 600 students.

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said the latest gift, along with $3.6

million from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation that was also announced

yesterday, brought the amount of private money donated to improve the school

system under the leadership of Mr. Klein and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to more

than $200 million.

''The good money knows what's happening in New York City,'' Mr. Klein said.

''This new small schools movement, you've heard about it, it's come to life

here. It is going to transform our city.''

The Gates gift will help Mr. Klein fulfill his promise to open 200 small

public and charter schools by 2007. But for the chancellor, there was also a

bit of an edge to the announcement.

While the Gates Foundation's executive director for education, Tom Vander

Ark, praised the mayor's efforts to transform the city school system and

aggressively create small schools, in interviews leading up to yesterday's

announcement Mr. Vander Ark also urged the city to adopt a broader plan to fix

its large schools. New York has made great strides in opening small schools,

he said, but that effort alone could not achieve the ultimate goal of raising

graduation rates citywide.

Also, a portion of the Gates gift earmarked for training principals was

given to a nonprofit national group called New Leaders for New Schools, rather

than the New York City Leadership Academy, a $75 million program that is

privately financed to train principals and was created by the chancellor and the

mayor. Mr. Klein is its chairman.

The grants were announced at South Bronx Preparatory, a small 6th through

12th grade school started by College Board, best known for its SAT college

entrance exam. The College Board will be the largest beneficiary, getting $11.85

million from the two foundations to open 16 schools.

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LOAD-DATE: February 16, 2005

LEVEL 1 - 19 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

February 2, 2005 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section B; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 873 words

HEADLINE: Small Schools In City Program To Grow by 52 In September

BYLINE: By LISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

Fifty-two new small middle and high schools, many with themes like sports

management, coastal studies and ''arts, imagination and inquiry,'' will open in

September, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday.

Among the new schools are 27 high schools, 14 middle schools and 11 schools

that combine 6th through 12th grades. They would bring to 157 the number of

small public and charter schools the mayor has created in the last two years as

a centerpiece of his effort to overhaul the city school system.

''For too long, our high schools did not prepare even a majority of

students for graduation,'' Mr. Bloomberg said, calling the new schools ''a

crucial part of our strategy to close the achievement gap.''

Only seven of the new schools will be placed inside large high school

buildings, a practice that has bred tension at schools throughout the city. The

small schools -within-schools, each with their own principals, themes and

learning philosophies, have struggled to coexist with one another and with the

large traditional high schools that are their hosts.

It is not yet clear where 16 of the new schools will be located, which could

make it difficult for students to decide whether they want to attend.

Officials have assigned all but one of the schools to particular boroughs.

The largest number, 22, will be in the Bronx, while Staten Island will have just

one. Still, the fact that some of the school sites have not been announced fed

into a common criticism of the mayor's small schools plan: that it has been

pushed ahead too quickly.

''They'd have much more credibility if they said, 'We're starting 36

schools,' not 52 schools,'' said Randi Weingarten, president of the United

Federation of Teachers.

But Ms. Weingarten indicated that she was generally pleased with the effort

to place most of the schools in leased buildings, new buildings and middle

schools with extra space.

''It clearly appears that they have learned from some of their mistakes,''

she said.

Kristen Kane, chief executive of the Office of New Schools, said she

expected that at least 14 of the undetermined locations would be finalized

before March 1, when student applications are due. She also said the decision to

place so few schools in large high school buildings did not represent a policy

shift, but rather the reality that most of the space in such schools had already

been filled.

Ms. Kane said, however, that two large, deeply troubled Bronx high schools,

Walton and Evander Childs, will not accept ninth-grade classes next year. Both

schools have continued to exist with several small schools inside them; Walton

is expected to get a fourth small school next year, but officials did not say

which one.

Eva S. Moskowitz, chairwoman of the City Council Education Committee,

praised the mayor's efforts to take on the tricky issue of high school reform,

saying he deserved credit. But she suggested that his administration had

uncritically embraced the idea that new small schools were the answer,

although previous efforts to create small schools in New York City had yielded

mixed results.

''They have latched onto the small- schools movement as the answer to all

of our hopes and fears,'' Ms. Moskowitz said.

''Why is this movement going to work where the previous movements have had

at best uneven results?'' she asked.

At the news conference about the new schools yesterday, Schools Chancellor

Joel I. Klein recited statistics that he said showed that small schools were

better. Their average attendance rates of 91 percent are above the citywide

average of 83 percent, he said, while 93 percent of their ninth graders but only

68 percent citywide are promoted to the 10th grade.

''As the song says, 'We've only just begun,' but that's one heck of a

beginning,'' he said.

But some successful large schools have similarly high, even higher,

attendance rates, and promotion to the 10th grade is based not on a standard

citywide test but on the number of classes students pass.

Though eighth graders have already selected the high schools they would like

to attend next year, they can submit new applications listing the new schools.

The mayor's enthusiasm for small schools is shared by charities like the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave $58 million to create the schools

in New York City. Yesterday, that enthusiasm was echoed by principals, students

and representatives of nonprofit groups who helped to plan the schools.

Clyde Cole, who will be the principal of the Urban Assembly Academy of

Business and Community Development in Brooklyn, said he hoped his all-boys

6th-to-12th-grade school ''really speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit of boys

of that age.''

Antoine Powell, 18, was part of a student-led group that planned the

Leadership Institute, a school that he said would ''give a sense of how to

survive in a community.''

Other new schools set to open include the Rachel Carson High School for

Coastal Studies and the High School of Sports Management, both in Brooklyn; the

Sports Professions High School and the Theater Arts Production Company School,

both in the Bronx; and, in Manhattan, the High School of Arts, Imagination and

Inquiry, which the Lincoln Center Institute will help run.

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LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2005

LEVEL 1 - 32 OF 41 STORIES

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

April 14, 2004 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Column 2; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1711 words

HEADLINE: City's Small Schools Uneasy Inside the Big Ones

BYLINE: By ELISSA GOOTMAN

BODY:

At Bronx Aerospace Academy High School, all 161 students wear blue uniforms

and well-shined black shoes. They have 13 laptop computers and, thanks to

private money, a $40,000 flight simulator to spice up lessons. They take field

trips to places like the New England Air Museum and have classes of no more than

28.

But the tiny Bronx Aerospace is inside the vast Evander Childs High School,

population 3,100, recently named one of the city's most unruly schools. There,

classes generally have 34 students, the maximum allowed by the teachers'

contract. There are no laptops. Field trips are rare. Jeans, tight for girls and

baggy for boys, are the preferred dress.

So it is not surprising that tensions have developed between the two

schools. Evander Childs students have banged on classroom doors at Aerospace,

torn down posters in its hallways and teased the Aerospace students, mocking

their uniforms and their marching, students and faculty members said. A few

times, the friction turned physical.

''It's like the bathroom in a big family: one bathroom, but there are five

members in the household,'' said Monica Ortiz-Urena, the principal of Evander

Childs. ''The biggest challenge is addressing the needs of the small schools

and my school with a balance.''

Next year, the balance is likely to be even more elusive across the city, as

dozens of new small schools take root within their large schools, each with

its own culture, philosophy about discipline, private financing and dress code.

New York City has been a nationwide leader in the small schools movement,

and replacing large high schools is a centerpiece of Mayor Michael R.

Bloomberg's efforts to overhaul the school system. He has vowed to create 200

small schools in three years using private money, including $58 million from

the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been underwriting small

schools for several years.

About 50 small schools predate the mayor's proclamation. Of the 200 he has

promised, 46 opened last fall, and 60 will open this fall. The new small

schools may appear richer than established schools because they get private

start-up money. Of the 60, all but a handful will be housed in large school

buildings. There is no other place for them to go.

Small schools generally do not have admissions tests, but most do give

priority to applicants who attend informational sessions or fairs for such

schools, and some give priority to children from their boroughs.

Critics, including teachers, parents and students at large schools, say the

city's Department of Education is paying too little attention to the details of

the transition and to softening the disparities in resources and attention

between the new schools and the old, a particularly touchy subject when the

have-nots were there first. They wonder whether the city's large schools will be

destabilized in the process, dooming them.

''They will make it virtually impossible to run a large school so they can

say, 'See, you're failing,''' said Alan Ettman, leader of the teachers' union

chapter at Walton High School in the Bronx, now home to two small schools.

Michele Cahill, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein's senior counselor for

education policy, said the department is trying to help large host schools by

giving their principals the opportunity to apply for $6 million in grants, and

by encouraging representatives of all schools in a building to meet regularly,

as a building council. But the need for better high schools is pressing, she

said.

At schools like Aerospace, on East Gun Hill Road, it is virtually impossible

for students to slip through the cracks. All are members of the Air Force Junior

R.O.T.C. The principal, Barbara A. Kirkweg, a retired Air Force captain, gives

parents her home number, and attendance is 95 percent.

''Clearly we need to pay attention to how the staff and the students in big

schools are experiencing this,'' Ms. Cahill said. But she added, ''There has not

been enough opportunity for students who are going to high schools that are

graduating fewer than 50 percent of their students. Small schools that are new

and created to be academically rigorous are one way of getting there.''

Some supporters of large schools say their virtues are being overlooked. One

is Robert Leder, the principal of Herbert H. Lehman High School near Westchester

Square in the Bronx, which has more than 30 sports teams, dozens of clubs and an

array of dances, shows and elective classes not found in the small schools.

Inside his building, Mr. Leder now has 4,200 students, 180 attending what

are essentially three small schools with their own directors. Mr. Leder said

he quickly laid down the law for them, saying all students would have to follow

the same prohibitions on hats and portable CD players.

''I said, 'You can develop any culture you want when you're in your own

building, but you're not in your own building.'''

But Mr. Leder said he has been told he cannot force the small schools to

start their days later to accommodate Lehman during the busy morning hours.

''They share our facilities, but their rooms are sacrosanct,'' he said.

''It's gyms, cafeterias and science labs that become an issue.''

At John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, near the Manhattan border,

close to 5,000 students attend the main school and two small schools. Some

teachers are fighting a plan to turn a third Kennedy program into a school next

year, possibly forcing Kennedy's auto shop to be turned into classrooms.

One evening, a couple of dozen teachers held a protest, carrying placards

reading ''Save Our Auto Shop'' and ''Mini Schools, Maximum Harm.''

Carolyn Eubanks, a mathematics teacher, said some small schools are more

selective, leaving Kennedy to accommodate more students with special needs.

''The small schools aren't selecting the kids who most need to be

selected,'' she said.

Carol Robinson, president of the Kennedy PTA, said the squeeze on space is

making it hard for Kennedy to recover from years of problems.

''When Bill Gates donated this money, it was not his goal to disenfranchise

some children,'' Mrs. Robinson said. ''But that is what is happening.''

Todd Venning, 17, a Kennedy senior who is captain of the track team, said,

''They come in with this attitude of, 'We're the future, we're going to phase

this school out.'''

Three small-school students joined the Kennedy track team, Todd said, but

they were not welcomed.

''We basically just told them that we just don't appreciate their

small-school situation,'' he said. ''It's like they have their stuff and they

use our stuff. And we have limited stuff, and can't use their stuff.''

At DeWitt Clinton High School, just south of Van Cortlandt Park in the

Bronx, the alumni association lobbied the Department of Education to remove the

one small school planted there this year, the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of

Music.

''What they were doing was taking one of the strengths of Clinton, which is

a music department, and they wanted to break it out of the school,'' said Robert

Esnard, a former New York City deputy mayor who graduated from Clinton in 1956

and is treasurer of the alumni association. ''There is nothing wrong with

small schools, and my view is there's nothing wrong with big schools if it's

done right.''

Next year, Celia Cruz will move, probably to Walton.

Bushwick High School in Brooklyn is being replaced entirely by small

schools. The transition has not been easy for its students, who sometimes

arrive at school to see buses lined up outside, waiting to take the students at

one small school or another to some coveted destination.

''People kind of forget about the old school and focus on the new

schools,'' said Alex Urquilla, 18, a Bushwick senior. ''I don't know why they

get special treatment and Bushwick doesn't. It's like they're getting all the

attention.''

Robert L. Hughes, the president of New Visions for Public Schools, a

nonprofit group that has created many of New York's small schools with Gates

and other private money and is now creating more, described the problems as

growing pains.

''We're struggling to transform an archaic structure that prevents teachers

and students from doing their best work,'' he said. ''I think culture clashes

are going to be inevitable during the transition, and it's incumbent upon

everybody sitting at the table to work to resolve them.''

For small schools, it can be a challenge to create a culture of rigorous

discipline and intimacy within a cavernous, crowded building. Some parents worry

about sending their children to big school buildings with bad reputations, even

if they are in separate classes. Students at the Marble Hill High School for

International Studies, for example, must start their days by walking through

metal detectors because the school is inside Kennedy.

Idella J. King-Anderson cherishes the close relationship her daughter Tishma

Anderson, 15, has with her teachers at Discovery, a small school in Walton,

near Jerome Park Reservoir, and appreciates the frequent contact she has with

teachers and counselors, who call home to inform her of Tishma's successes as

well as her difficulties. But she said she wished there were more separation

between Discovery and its host.

''I think they should have security there where it divides them up,'' she

said. ''Just like they have security for Walton, they should have security for

Discovery.''

Last fall, an Aerospace teacher, Griffina S. Blake, won a $3,800 grant for a

project to bring together Aerospace and Evander Childs students, to make a video

about the relationship between small and large schools.

''I was hoping that maybe if we could foster this understanding, in the long

run we could have less of that hostility,'' Ms. Blake said.

At a project meeting one recent afternoon, things quickly grew heated, with

some Aerospace students saying they thought their presence improved the school,

and Evander Childs students saying Aerospace's privileges stung.

Ms. Blake managed to quell the debate by turning it around. Instead of

focusing on their differences, she asked the students whether this question --

How have small schools affected security at Evander Childs? -- should be asked

of their classmates as the video camera rolled. Finally, they agreed.

URL:

GRAPHIC: Photo: Desiree Williams, a Bronx Aerospace Academy student, films

Kamaal Ryan, right, of Evander Childs High School, as he interviews Marisa Diaz,

also of Bronx Aerospace, about having a school within a school. (Photo by Ruth

Fremson/The New York Times)(pg. B9)

LOAD-DATE: April 14, 2004

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