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The New York Sun, June 12, 2003, p. 7

New Public School Vision
J.P. AVLON

The settlement reached Tuesday at the State Supreme Court drove the last nail into the coffin of the old Board of Education, and has opened the door to what might prove to be a new era of innovation and accountability in New York City’s school system. The real work of education reform, however, will be done at the ground level, by schools like the Bronx Academy of Letters.

The Bronx Academy of Letters - a New Visions high school founded by the Urban Assembly and dedicated to literacy - is set to open its doors this fall in Mott Haven. It will be on the front lines of New York’s quiet education revolution.

New Visions high schools use private funding from the Open Society Institute, the Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Endowment to break up failing big-city public high schools and replace them with several smaller public schools that focus on specific skills that might lead to a career. This public-private partnership delivers extraordinary resources that ensure the schools’ popularity with students - not to mention parents - who are thirsty for a more challenging and relevant academic experience.

Last year, a new round of New Visions high schools was announced in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The leader of the non-profit Urban Assembly, Richard Kahan - who had already overseen the establishment of the Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice and the Academy for Careers in Sports - was approached by Joan Sullivan, one of the teachers at the Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice, with the idea of establishing a new school in the Bronx devoted specifically to literacy and writing.

Ms. Sullivan was already a published author as well as a popular and innovative teacher. She founded the girls basketball team and combined a class on constitutional law with American history for ninth graders, an idea that resulted in striking success on the U.S. History and Government Regents Exam. Ms. Sullivan then partnered with a fellow Yale graduate, Michael Jackson, an investment banker and New York City public elementary school product, and began outlining plans for a comprehensive program that would weave literacy into every level of a high-school education.

It’s not often that there is an opportunity to build a new high school up from the ground. The application process took months; the proposed school structure was outlined; and an advisory board was formed, which I was asked and honored to join. The enthusiasm at organizational meetings reflected the dedication of a group of relatively young people who were creating a school curriculum that would inspire a lifetime love of literacy in an even younger generation. Ms. Sullivan’s practical experience as a public school teacher, Mr. Jackson’s financial background and involvement with local non-profit educational organizations, and program coordinator William Georgantas’s knowledge of New York-based print and broadcast media, represent a well-balanced group of talents guided by Mr. Kahan’s experience in building a successful New Visions high school.

The school’s focus on literacy will be woven throughout all the classroom requirements. For example, a study of the Vietnam War in humanities class could be supplemented by reading classic literary dissections of the war, such as Michael Herr’s "Dispatches" and Tim O’ Brien’s "The Things They Carried." Math and science classes could come alive by being taught in conjunction with Tom Stoppard’s nearly perfect play "Arcadia," Michael Frayn’s "Copenhagen," or David Auburn’s "Proof."

Ambitious? Absolutely. But why should public school students looking for a challenge be offered anything less?

Decades of social promotion policies in public schools have created a literacy crisis. The Bronx Academy of Letters will require that all students take an intensive freshman-year literacy course to ensure that basic skills are at or above grade-level. A school newspaper and literary journal will help students take pride in their work. The Bronx Academy of Letters will have an official writer in residence as well as host a weekly "writers’ forum," which will bring published authors, editors, and poets to the school each week to speak to the students. The school’s corporate and individual sponsors will help place students in summer internships, where their fledgling literary skills will be applied to real life. College placement services will also be available to assist students and their families.

This rededication to the pursuit of the essentials of education promises to be a powerful example of what can happen when bureaucracy is taken apart and an innovative but accountable spirit is allowed to flourish.

The school is already receiving applications from students and faculty for the academic year beginning in September 2003. With Ms. Sullivan serving as the school’s principal, an effort is also underway to raise additional private funding to supplement the limited public budget available. Tonight, at 7 p.m. the first public fund-raiser will be held downtown at Pioneer, on Bowery between Prince and Spring streets. Calvin Trillin will be reading, among others. For more information about the school’s academics, or making a donation, check out the Web site at www.bronxletters.com. Private solutions to public education problems are worth supporting.

There is no limit to what can ultimately be achieved from the smallest beginnings. Down the road, the Bronx Academy of Letters might prove to be the beginning of a new Bronx literary renaissance. After all, the school takes its motto from one-time Bronx resident Edgar Allan Poe: "Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream." Now is the time, and the Bronx Academy of Letters is a place, for watching dreams grow into realities.
jpavlon@nysun.com

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