Helen Zelon

Like a small, sturdy ship plying an ocean’s large swells, the New York Harbor School is a vessel of considerable integrity, facing daunting challenges.

First, the school is miles from the water, an essential element to its curriculum and mission. Second, the students, many of whom arrive unprepared for high school, can be overwhelmed by the expectations of rigor, discipline, and commitment that characterize Harbor. That said, the school’s dynamic, charismatic leaders–Principal Nate Dudley and founder Murray Fisher–lead a crew of devoted young teaching professionals, whose energy both in the classroom and the field has the power to transform young lives.

The school, one of three new schools in the Bushwick High School building, was established in 2003 with a 9th grade and is adding one grade a year until it has a full 9th-12th grade program. The school was set up with funding from New Visions, an education reform group which has launched a series of new small schools, each with a community organization as a partner. It also has the support of Urban Assembly, led by Richard Kahan, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating small public high schools in underserved areas of New York City.

The core of the school is its curriculum, which uses the city’s waterfront location as a way to probe numerous academic disciplines. Literature, math, science, history, and art are all related to the nautical experience. Ocean murals line the hallways, and students take fortnightly water excursions, competing eagerly on these outings to gather information, exchange thoughts, and get into the water. They do water sampling, investigate environmental preservation, learn about oyster farming, row on the river, or sail on the 1893 schooner Lettie G. Howard thanks to a partnership with the South Street Seaport Museum. For budding marine biologists and environmental scientists, the school is a paradise of opportunity.

Many kids, though, arrive at Harbor without a strong passion for the water–and often, without the academic foundation required to master the high school curriculum. Part of this is stems from the school’s youth, says the principal; as it becomes more established, more students will select the school during the application process, and the standard of achievement will likely rise, he argues. This has been the case to date, with each incoming class, according to Dudley.

Students at Harbor have daily “advisories”–small groups of students meeting with a member of the faculty–which help the kids with organization, homework management, and other matters. But throughout the day, we saw teachers engage with numerous students, in classrooms and hallways, and take an active, genuine interest in their lives.

The goal of preparing children well for college seems within reach for some students, woefully elusive for those with faltering basic literacy and math skills, according to teachers we spoke with. Students wear simple uniforms — a Harbor school shirt with jeans or trousers — to school; some teachers do, too, as a sign of solidarity and, as one said, because it solves the problem of “what to wear every morning.”

Some of the teaching we observed was outstanding. One 11th-grade math class began by looking for math patterns in the film Pi, discovering references to the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio of geometrics to fine art, and the numerical equivalents of the Hebrew alphabet, where letters stand for numerals, too. A science class held a lively “gum lab,” during which kids chewed vigorously for 30 seconds, then sketched the “specimen,” and answered a series of observation- and inference-based questions. But in other classes, kids were disengaged, talked back to teachers and to each other, and generally resisted instruction.

Notably, the typical body language of the urban teen fell away when the students were in the field. We traveled with one class to the aquarium on Coney Island, and the students’ engagement, enthusiasm, and sheer pleasure of learning and doing was palpable–and contagious. Whether identifying native species, sifting the sands of the beach, or arguing about who gets to wear the waders and head out into the ocean, these kids cared about what they were doing.

The school is steadily increasing the academic challenges it offers, adding an Advanced Placement course in environmental science in 2006-07, and planning to add Regents-level Spanish and biology as well. According to Dudley, New York Harbor posted the highest passing rate on the Regents exams, over 70 percent, of the schools in the Bushwick building. (The others are: Bushwick High School for Social Justice, Academy of Urban Planning, New York Harbor School, and Academy for Environmental Leadership.)

Often, students do not have strong parental support; many live in single-parent homes, and a significant portion are in foster care or live with extended family. Community involvement in the school is low.

Teachers made home visits to 50 9th-graders’ families in the summer before school began to introduce themselves and bring a gift of a school-uniform shirt. Going the extra distance is expected of Harbor’s staff; many teachers invest extra hours in preparation and mentoring, and say they feel a deep allegiance to the school’s mission.

Ninth graders learn to swim in the school’s Olympic-sized pool. Students in the 10th and 11th grades take college tours with the school. It’s the first exposure to higher education for many kids, and teachers are careful to say “when” you go to college, not “if.”

Special education: Harbor offers “collaborative team teaching” (CTT) classes–two teachers, one a specialist in special education, oversee a class of both general education students and students with special needs. Individual students also may receive support in their classrooms.

English as a Second Language: About a third of students receive ESL support.

After school: Numerous activities, clubs, and building-wide varsity teams offer students varied choices. About half of Harbor students participate in after-school programs like step dancing, peer tutoring, student council, an anime club, and a river-keeper/harbor corps.

Admissions: Students select New York Harbor on their application form. There are no academic or standardized testing requirements. (Helen Zelon, November 2005)

Read the complete profile at InsideSchools.org.

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