New York City's Wealth of Historically Black Independent Schools

Abstract

New York City hosts a wealth of historically Black independent schools serving African American children. Foster (1991) lists 63 such schools throughout the state of New York, 55 in New York City alone. Over the past four years, the Toussaint Institute, a nonprofit research and consulting organization, has reached out to historically Black independent schools in New York City. Since 1988 its scholarship division, the Toussaint Institute Fund (TIF), has placed 12 students, all of them African American males, into 8 such schools, where these youngsters have experienced achievement and success as Toussaint Scholars. TIF's approach has been to (1) identify and collect descriptive data on the historically Black independent schools in New York City; (2) place into such schools children who have had histories of problems in public schools and monitor their progress; and (3) assist the schools in making themselves available as local and national resources. The present article offers a preliminary report on this ongoing work and describes our findings in each of these areas. Over the past few years increasing discussion has focused on the role of private schools in efforts to reform the American educational system. This is a result of studies indicating that private schools, particularly inner-city Catholic high schools, are organized in ways that more effectively serve disadvantaged students than do traditional public high schools (Chubb & Moe, 1991; Coleman, 1985; Hill, Foster, & Gendler, 1990). The Institute for Independent Education (1991) estimated that there are 300 independent neighborhood schools serving children of color nationwide. The increased interest in inner-city private schools has taken many perspectives. In some cases, urban private schools are viewed as alternative placements for children who do not perform well in public schools. In the context of discussions about free-market or 11choice educational initiatives, these private schools are considered by some to be valuable catalysts for improving public schools. Lastly, these schools are viewed as laboratories in which nonbureaucratic models can be studied for possible replication in public schools. In many ways New York City's independent inner-city schools are part of a continuous drive on the part of local communities to control