New Heights Academy Charter School (M353 [1] ) is a charter school in Harlem, New York City, New York for grades 5 - 12, located at 1818 Amsterdam Avenue. [2] It is within the New York City Department of Education.
The students originate from Harlem, Inwood, and Washington Heights. [3]
New Heights Academy Charter School was founded in 2006 for students in grades 5-12 living in Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Washington Heights in particular was lacking in high school options for students entering 9th grade, so the opening of New Heights provided these students with the opportunity to attend high school in their own neighborhood.
As of 2011 it was the largest charter school in New York City. [3]
New Heights Academy received its initial charter in 2005. Committed to locating the school in District 6 where the majority of students and their families live, the founding team delayed opening the school for one year until space was found for the school in District 6. In 2006 New Heights Academy opened its doors in a landmarked former ribbon factory, 'Fair and Square' Ribbons manufactured by Joseph Loth & Co., to 192 fifth and ninth graders. Each year New Heights Academy added an additional grade in both middle school and high school, reaching full enrollment of 750 students in 2009. In June 2010, New Heights held its inaugural high school graduation. Stacy Winitt is the founder of New Heights Academy Charter School.
As of 2015 the school's board of trustees includes representatives of Bingham McCutchen, Goldman Sachs, NRG Energy, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Time Warner, and other major companies. Alan J. Singer, author of Education Flashpoints: Fighting for America’s Schools, stated that the resources given by the board was one of the reasons attributed to the school's "apparent success". [3] Christina Brown is the current Executive Director.
Charter schools are public schools which receive public funds though operate independently from local school boards. New Heights Academy is accountable to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute and the charter is up for renewal every three-five years. Students at New Heights Academy are selected through a lottery system and are eligible to begin attending New Heights as fifth graders. Upon successful completion of middle school requirements, students are promoted to New Heights Academy High School.
New Heights Academy High School has many similarities to other New York City public high schools. Students at New Heights take Regents exams in all of their core subjects. New Heights also offers Advanced Placement courses, including AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP United States History, AP Italian, and AP Psychology. Students at New Heights, however, follow an extended day schedule, with school beginning at 8:20 am and ending at 4:14 pm (though on Wednesdays students have a half day schedule and staff members have professional development in the afternoon). All students at New Heights study a college-preparatory curriculum and must successfully complete a 4 year sequence in English, History, Mathematics and Science (most NYC high schools have only a 3 year STEM requirement).
Saturday Academy exists to support students in their core classes, as well as provide additional preparation for Regents and Advanced Placement examinations. Some students are required to attend the Saturday Academy to get extra help in schoolwork. [3]
Students in grades 9, 10 and 11 have the option to take Japanese language classes. Founder Stacy Winitt stated that the school wants students to be more marketable by knowing more languages, and the school selected Japanese since it is an unfamiliar language to the majority Hispanic student body. [4]
The college curriculum and preparation differentiates New Heights Academy from most public high schools. OneGoal, a program focused on college graduation for urban students, is an integral part of Advisory. The OneGoal curriculum is implemented in all 11th and 12th grade Advisory classes, in which students explore different colleges, learn about the college application process and create their own personal post-secondary path. The college counselors regularly push in to Advisory classes. Selected students with GPAs ranging from 75-85 with excellent attendance records receive additional mentorship and support as the designated OneGoal class, beginning in 11th grade and following them through their first year of college. Teachers with several years of classroom experience and strong relationships with students are selected as OneGoal Program Directors, and they remain with their OneGoal classes for three consecutive years.
All high school students at New Heights go on trips to visit colleges. In 9th grade students take day trips to visit local CUNY and private colleges, in 10th grade students visit colleges in upstate New York on an overnight trip, and during 11th grade students attend a week long, overnight, out-of-state college trip. As seniors students receive extensive guidance and support in applying to a total of fifteen CUNYs, SUNYs and private colleges. 100% of New Heights seniors are accepted into college. Notable colleges students attend include Cornell, Barnard, University of Rochester, Boston University, RIT, Gettysburg, Wheaton, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Binghamton and CUNY Hunter College.
Circa 2014 NYCDOE school assessment personnel ranked this school an "A" school for the 2010-2011 progress report. [3]
As of circa 2020, 24% performed at grade level in mathematics and 21% performed at or above grade level in reading. The incoming class at that time had a higher reading score than the students already established at New Heights. [3]
The NYCDOE stated that the school's graduation rate was 81% while the school stated that 90% of the original 12th grade class graduated. Singer wrote that the NYCDOE rate was "still very high given the student population." [3] According to City University of New York college tests proctored around 2014, 1.1% of students graduating from New Heights were prepared to do university-level work without remedial classes. [5] Since then this has gone down
As of 2020 about all of the students are Hispanic. 95% of the students qualified for free or reduced lunch, an indicator of low income status. [3]
It had 192 students in 2006 and 760 students by fall 2011. [3]
Athletic offerings abound at New Heights High School, including the following:
New Heights students can get involved in the following activities:
Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Marble Hill to the north, the Harlem River to the east, and Washington Heights to the south.
Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the uppermost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan Island by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.
Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there is no tuition fee. Enrollment is approximately 1200 students. According to the school, "students accepted to Hunter represent the top one-quarter of 1% of students in New York City, based on test scores."
Hamilton Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is the northernmost part of the West Harlem area, along with Manhattanville and Morningside Heights to its south, and it contains the sub-neighborhood and historic district of Sugar Hill. Washington Heights lies to Hamilton Heights' north, and to its east is Central Harlem.
Bronx Preparatory Charter School is a public middle and high school in the South Bronx. Comprising students in grades 5-12, Bronx Prep graduated its first class of seniors in June 2007. The school is located in a modern facility designed and constructed by GLUCK+ Architects specifically for Bronx Prep at 3872 Third Avenue.
Pace University High School, also known as "Pace High School," is a public high school located in the New York City borough of Manhattan, affiliated with Pace University.
Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics is a public high school at East 116th Street between Pleasant Avenue and FDR Drive in East Harlem, within Upper Manhattan, New York City.
Baruch College Campus High School (BCCHS) is a public high school located in Kips Bay in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. BCCHS is renowned for its high academic standards, advisory program and perfect graduation rate.
Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, or BASE, is one of four public high schools in the Prospect Heights Educational Campus. BASE was established in 2003: a partnership among the Prospect Park Alliance, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and environmentalist and journalist Ibrahim Abdul-Matin. Students participate in "field studies" at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, complementing classroom education about science, nature, and the environment.
The University of the State of New York (USNY), its policy-setting Board of Regents, and its administrative arm, the New York State Education Department, oversee all public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state. The New York City Department of Education, which manages the public school system in New York City, is the largest school district in the United States, with more students than the combined population of eight U.S. states. Over 1 million students are taught in more than 1,200 separate schools.
The Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, formerly Kingsborough High School for the Sciences at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY from 1993 to 1999) is a four-year high school, located in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York. Leon M. Goldstein High School is screened-admission public school under the administration of the New York City Department of Education.
The history of New York University begins in the early 19th century. A group of prominent New York City residents from the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders established NYU on April 18, 1831. These New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based on merit, not birthright or social class. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, described his motivation in a letter to a friend: "It appeared to me impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and the right of universal suffrage unless we could raise the standard of general education and the mind of the laboring classes nearer to a level with those born under more favorable circumstances." To the school's founders, the classical curriculum offered at American colonial colleges needed to be combined with a more modern and practical education. Educators in Paris, Vienna, and London were beginning to consider a new form of higher learning, where students began to focus not only on the classics and religion, but also modern languages, philosophy, history, political economy, mathematics, and physical science; so students might become merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, architects, and engineers. Although the new school would be non-denominational – unlike many American colonial colleges, which at the time offered classical educations centered on theology – the founding of NYU was also a reaction by evangelical Presbyterians to what they perceived as the Episcopalianism of Columbia College.
College of Staten Island High School For International Studies (CSIHSIS) is a New York City public high school that incorporates an internationally themed curriculum as well as preparing students for the 21st Century. CSIHSIS originally opened as a Region 7 public high school in 2005 on the College of Staten Island campus and moved to a new building in September 2009 located in New Springville, Staten Island. It was founded through a partnership with The College of Staten Island and Asia Society, with financial support by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The A. Philip Randolph Campus High School is a four-year public high school in New York City. It is located in Harlem, adjacent to the City College of New York. It occupies a landmark building formerly occupied by The High School of Music & Art. The school was established in 1979 as an educational collaboration between the Board of Education and The City College of New York. The high school is open to all New York City residents, and more than 90% of its graduates attend college. Its daily attendance rate is 90 percent or better throughout the year. The students may take eleven advanced placement (AP) courses in five subject areas as well as college courses at Randolph, The City College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. In doing so, many students earn college credits while attending high school.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School is a coeducational public high school located at 5800 20th Avenue in the Mapleton section of Brooklyn, New York. It is a zoned/public high school, with an enrollment of approximately 3,700 students, encompassing grades 9–12. In total, the school includes 280,717 sq feet of class space, gyms, cafeteria, and auditorium.
Charter schools in New York are independent, not-for-profit public schools operating under a different set of rules than the typical state-run schools, exempt from many requirements and regulations. Any student eligible for public schools can apply.
Education in and around the neighborhood of Harlem, in Manhattan, New York City, is provided in schools and institutions of higher education, both public and private. For many decades, Harlem has had a lower quality of public education than wealthier sections of the city. It is mostly lower-income. But also check out the Harlem Children's Zone
Harlem Village Academies (HVA) is a network of charter schools in Harlem, New York. Deborah Kenny is Chief Executive Officer.
The Young Women's Leadership School of East Harlem (TYWLS) is a public all-girls school in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The school serves approximately 440 young women in 6th through 12th grade. It is part of the Young Women's Leadership Network (YWLN). It was founded in 1996 by Ann and Andrew Tisch and New York City's Center for Education Innovation Public Education Association. They believed that it would help school families because in other public schools many girls weren't heard and the graduation rates were low. Then-Chancellor Rudy Crew led the project to the unanimous support of the New York City Board of Education.
Coordinates: 40°49′43″N73°56′43″W / 40.828615°N 73.945396°W