New York City Public Schools Research Articles

"Small" Revolution in New York City

To read the papers, one might think that the only things going on in New York City's public this year were condom distribution, curricular struggles over defining the family, and the firing of a chancellor. Actually, however, over the 1992-93 school year, a fantastic development unfolded that could eventually change the contours of secondary education not only in New York City but across the nation. While the squabbles were being recorded on the front pages of the city's newspapers, 37 new small high were quietly taking shape. All were scheduled to open in September 1993, with another 14 projected to begin the following September. Each will be small--some of them tiny by New York City standards--and at least some will be innovative, nontraditional places explicitly designed to respond to the urban adolescents of today.This article tells the story of these developments, and they reported from dual perspectives: that of an outside observer of the events and that of a very actively engaged participant in them. One of us (Henderson) is the principal-designate of one of the new opening in September 1993, and the other (Raywid) is a scholar/analyst of school reform observing these events from 40 miles away. We want first to describe how the idea for these emerged, and then to tell in detail the story of just one of the 37: The Legacy School for Integrated Studies. Events reported as they stood in May 1993 when this article was written.The story begins in spring 1992, when several independent initiatives put forth the idea of launching new small high schools. It was not until August 1992, however, that it was announced that the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) chancellor was seeking to create 30 small high over the next three years (Berger, 1992a). Some would be themed, some would be selective in some way, some would represent unusual auspices and sponsorship, but all were to be small, and special arrangements would link each school to an unusual extent with some group outside itself. The idea was recommended by a number of conditions and developments, and it has yielded some remarkable planning processes and novel school designs, of which The Legacy School is one.The insistence on smallness comes in response to a growing consensus among researchers and reformers that all students, but most especially disadvantaged students, likely to perform better in downsized, less compartmentalized and bureaucratized (Bryk, Lee, & Smith, 1990; Gregory & Smith, 1987; Walberg & Fowler, 1987; Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko, & Fernandez, 1989). There is also a growing sense among educators that small work better for teachers and thus for innovation (see, e.g., Meier, 1991). It may have been a factor in New York that small may also be a solution to the city's burgeoning space needs. Previous efforts to downsize the city's large high had encountered many obstacles (McCabe & Oxley, 1989); thus, the idea was to supplement the 124 existing behemoth high schools--some with enrollments approaching 5,000--with 30 additional ranging in size from 300 to a maximum of 1,000 students (Berger, 1992b).The specialization or focus feature was recommended by several kinds of experience, including the success of magnet in improving student achievement (see, e.g., Blank, 1990; Raywid, 1990a) and the recently substantiated accomplishments of career academies (Crain, Heebner, & Si, 1992). The adoption of a central focus was also recommended by the successes of New York's alternative schools, which emphasize the importance within a school of a shared perspective or belief system. As a recent and influential Rand Corporation study concluded, themed or focused are probably the best form of school for the vast majority of students now served by New York City's zoned comprehensive high schools (Hill, Foster, & Gendler, 1990, p. …