Tuesday, May 30, 1995
Washington Irving High School Needs You
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In 1993-94 the students at Washington Irving High School (on Irving Place between East 16th and 17th Streets) had average SA scores of 300 in English and 325 in math, compared with the citywide 363 and 431. Only 18 percent of the 2500 students took the tests (citywide 25); yet 80 percent want to attend college, while 10 percent want to get jobs.
This is both sad and pathetic, and a lot of kids stand to be disappointed. But are we adults doing enough to both improve the education and provide more realistic opportunities for employment for these disadvantaged young, 70 percent from subpoverty level, 90 percent Hispanic and Afro-American, who voluntarily (not bused) come to this city-wide school?
The adults may well be doing quite a bit, though the numbers are not great. Comparing 1991/92 to 1994/95 figures, the count of WIHS graduates has grown from 190 to 250, but so has enrollment, 405 to 570, and the percentage of students graduating, 43.8, is 3 points below that of 1991. Yet, attendance is up 3 points, to 84.5 percent, passing grades are up 6 points, to 67 percent, and suspensions are down from 186 to 171 (the all-time high, 228, was in 1993). Apparently the students see WIHS as as a school with a lot of good things to offer, with applications for admission up, from 4311 to 6800.
What, then are those good things? First, there is Principal Robert Durkin who is innovative, works long hours and does not admit defeat. Second, WIHS is not one but eight schools. Since 1991 WIHS has eight "houses," that perform as individual schools satisfying standard requirements but also providing individual curricula - Art (arts and academics), Teaching/Early Child Care, ESL (for foreign-born), Foreign Language (six languages and cultures), International Studies (multicultural, commerce), Law and Public Service, Megatech, and Necessary Skills (special ed). Third, it has the neighborhood.
WIHS is a partnership, with a business advisory council of 36 members, all local company people. WIHS also has an an education coordinator, paid by the 14th Street/Union Square BID/LDC. The partners, all business executives, give - furniture, education equipment, and jobs; and themselves. Some examples:
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has 42 mentors providing SAT tutoring; New York Cares coordinates the nearly 100 community volunteers who come in at 7:30 to 8:15 on Tuesdays, to improve 9th graders' reading skills; Con Ed, Guardian Life, FPG International, the BID/LDC and others provide 50 summer jobs (1994 figures); YMCA of Greater New York, LaGuardia, Manhattan Community College, Cardozo, New School and Columbia give kids a chance at eye-opener courses and seminars.
There's computer training at Con Ed and NYNEX, and a book drive for the WIHS library through the former; Guardian gives office furniture and has equipped a lunchroom with quality used chairs and tables, installed by Office Installations and Interiors; Lane Office Furniture give you know what; Lockhart and Pettus teach an advertising workshop school; Thompson Publishing and P&J Realty gives computers; T. Moloney and M. Heines started a dance program; Chase Manhattan, Hospital for Joint Diseases have given grants; Danspace at St. Mark's gives tickets.
City Volunteer Corps and Epiphany School have intern programs; the 13th Pct and Transit have the Explorers' Club to give kids a taste for law enforcement careers; Jane Chesnutt of Women's Day magazine, David Fleischman of National Academy Foundation and Aldon James of National Arts Club do special things. And individuals give money; there's a wonderful lady who donated $5,000. I'd mention her name, but that might put her on all fundraisers' begging lists.
I want to tell you that all this should make us proud of New York and New Yorkers, people who often put their hearts first, pocket books second. That's New York, Newt Gingrich.
But this is not a political diatribe, this is a call to generate participation. It is a call for more tutors, mentors (a more structured committment), and for summer jobs. If you think you can help, come forth, write, fax or call Penni Morganstern at the BID/LDC office, 4 Irving Place, Room 1149-S, NY, NY 10003, fax 420-8570, phone 460-1200. Check it out, as they say on 14th Street.
Talking to Peter Hutchings, an actuary and CFO of Guardian Life who is also president of the BID and tutors twice a week at WIHS, it becomes evident that one's human skills rather than special academic abilities are needed to be a good tutor. If your algebra is rusty, it does not matter. Most literate people can tutor remedial English, helping students read passages and explaining meanings, whether it is literature, biology or a math text. You too can give it a try. There are also tutor workshops.
Some 50 summer jobs have been promised by neighborhood businesses for 1995. The goal is 100 jobs. If you have a store, selling shoes, hardware; if you run a restaurant ... all of you may need summer help. Hospitals, office buildings, apartment houses... building service jobs... think about how you can help. In this environment of budget cuts, closed after-school programs, youth centers and summer schools, keeping education and motivation going becomes a volunteer task. Principal Robert Durkin has a dream - to form business technology partnerships, with students learning marketable business and computer skills looking over the shoulders of company employees, who act as consultants. Ultimately WIHS could become a model academic highschool with a technology program. Con Edison's computer training program is a start.
The system of houses at WIHS attempts to provide some specializations for marketable skills. It also tries to solve the problem of impersonality, bringing the 100 to 500 kids in each house closer to their teachers. This is one of the objectives of the "small schools" movement. Unfortunately, the other, reducing class sizes to 20 is not going to happen in New York's economic straits, no matter how much Annenberg challenge money flows into the study projects in New York. That is why a voluntary partnership concept such as WIHS is needed to stop the steady downhill slide of the education system. You too can be a partner.
In 1993-94 the students at Washington Irving High School (on Irving Place between East 16th and 17th Streets) had average SA scores of 300 in English and 325 in math, compared with the citywide 363 and 431. Only 18 percent of the 2500 students took the tests (citywide 25); yet 80 percent want to attend college, while 10 percent want to get jobs.
This is both sad and pathetic, and a lot of kids stand to be disappointed. But are we adults doing enough to both improve the education and provide more realistic opportunities for employment for these disadvantaged young, 70 percent from subpoverty level, 90 percent Hispanic and Afro-American, who voluntarily (not bused) come to this city-wide school?
The adults may well be doing quite a bit, though the numbers are not great. Comparing 1991/92 to 1994/95 figures, the count of WIHS graduates has grown from 190 to 250, but so has enrollment, 405 to 570, and the percentage of students graduating, 43.8, is 3 points below that of 1991. Yet, attendance is up 3 points, to 84.5 percent, passing grades are up 6 points, to 67 percent, and suspensions are down from 186 to 171 (the all-time high, 228, was in 1993). Apparently the students see WIHS as as a school with a lot of good things to offer, with applications for admission up, from 4311 to 6800.
What, then are those good things? First, there is Principal Robert Durkin who is innovative, works long hours and does not admit defeat. Second, WIHS is not one but eight schools. Since 1991 WIHS has eight "houses," that perform as individual schools satisfying standard requirements but also providing individual curricula - Art (arts and academics), Teaching/Early Child Care, ESL (for foreign-born), Foreign Language (six languages and cultures), International Studies (multicultural, commerce), Law and Public Service, Megatech, and Necessary Skills (special ed). Third, it has the neighborhood.
WIHS is a partnership, with a business advisory council of 36 members, all local company people. WIHS also has an an education coordinator, paid by the 14th Street/Union Square BID/LDC. The partners, all business executives, give - furniture, education equipment, and jobs; and themselves. Some examples:
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has 42 mentors providing SAT tutoring; New York Cares coordinates the nearly 100 community volunteers who come in at 7:30 to 8:15 on Tuesdays, to improve 9th graders' reading skills; Con Ed, Guardian Life, FPG International, the BID/LDC and others provide 50 summer jobs (1994 figures); YMCA of Greater New York, LaGuardia, Manhattan Community College, Cardozo, New School and Columbia give kids a chance at eye-opener courses and seminars.
There's computer training at Con Ed and NYNEX, and a book drive for the WIHS library through the former; Guardian gives office furniture and has equipped a lunchroom with quality used chairs and tables, installed by Office Installations and Interiors; Lane Office Furniture give you know what; Lockhart and Pettus teach an advertising workshop school; Thompson Publishing and P&J Realty gives computers; T. Moloney and M. Heines started a dance program; Chase Manhattan, Hospital for Joint Diseases have given grants; Danspace at St. Mark's gives tickets.
City Volunteer Corps and Epiphany School have intern programs; the 13th Pct and Transit have the Explorers' Club to give kids a taste for law enforcement careers; Jane Chesnutt of Women's Day magazine, David Fleischman of National Academy Foundation and Aldon James of National Arts Club do special things. And individuals give money; there's a wonderful lady who donated $5,000. I'd mention her name, but that might put her on all fundraisers' begging lists.
I want to tell you that all this should make us proud of New York and New Yorkers, people who often put their hearts first, pocket books second. That's New York, Newt Gingrich.
But this is not a political diatribe, this is a call to generate participation. It is a call for more tutors, mentors (a more structured committment), and for summer jobs. If you think you can help, come forth, write, fax or call Penni Morganstern at the BID/LDC office, 4 Irving Place, Room 1149-S, NY, NY 10003, fax 420-8570, phone 460-1200. Check it out, as they say on 14th Street.
Talking to Peter Hutchings, an actuary and CFO of Guardian Life who is also president of the BID and tutors twice a week at WIHS, it becomes evident that one's human skills rather than special academic abilities are needed to be a good tutor. If your algebra is rusty, it does not matter. Most literate people can tutor remedial English, helping students read passages and explaining meanings, whether it is literature, biology or a math text. You too can give it a try. There are also tutor workshops.
Some 50 summer jobs have been promised by neighborhood businesses for 1995. The goal is 100 jobs. If you have a store, selling shoes, hardware; if you run a restaurant ... all of you may need summer help. Hospitals, office buildings, apartment houses... building service jobs... think about how you can help. In this environment of budget cuts, closed after-school programs, youth centers and summer schools, keeping education and motivation going becomes a volunteer task. Principal Robert Durkin has a dream - to form business technology partnerships, with students learning marketable business and computer skills looking over the shoulders of company employees, who act as consultants. Ultimately WIHS could become a model academic highschool with a technology program. Con Edison's computer training program is a start.
The system of houses at WIHS attempts to provide some specializations for marketable skills. It also tries to solve the problem of impersonality, bringing the 100 to 500 kids in each house closer to their teachers. This is one of the objectives of the "small schools" movement. Unfortunately, the other, reducing class sizes to 20 is not going to happen in New York's economic straits, no matter how much Annenberg challenge money flows into the study projects in New York. That is why a voluntary partnership concept such as WIHS is needed to stop the steady downhill slide of the education system. You too can be a partner.
