Three Large Foundations Give $30-Million to Create Small Schools in New York City

By NICOLE LEWIS

Three of the nation’s largest foundations will donate a total of $30-million to support a school-reorganization plan in New York that is aimed primarily at dividing some of the city’s large, overcrowded high schools into more-efficient smaller ones.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Open Society Institute each will give $10-million to begin the New Century High Schools Consortium for New York City, an effort to improve the performance of 10 large high schools in low-income neighborhoods.

New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit organization in New York, will administer the program.

The consortium will provide grants for restructuring schools that have as many as 4,800 students into schools with no more than 500 students. The new schools will have curricula that concentrate on such themes as civic education, technology, and the arts. The consortium also will sponsor the creation of new neighborhood schools.

“Small schools have been shown to be a really effective design for young people,” says Michele Cahill, a senior program officer at the Carnegie Corporation. She says that kids are more likely to graduate from small high schools than from “large, anonymous” ones. In addition, she says, small schools “are generally safer” than big ones, and in small schools “kids have adults who know them as whole persons.”

The effort could result in the creation of 35 to 60 schools by dividing each large school into several smaller units. In some cases, several of the smaller schools will share a single large building. In other cases, schools may lease space from churches or other existing facilities.

To receive a grant, a school must form partnerships with parents, local businesses, colleges, health-care institutions, and arts and social-service organizations as a way of showing that an entire neighborhood is committed to the school’s success.

Grant seekers will be able to apply this spring for planning awards of $50,000 to $250,000 each. Grantees will then compete for a second round of awards worth $500 to $1,000 per pupil. That money will be used to design curricula, train teachers, and, if necessary, lease space. The grant money will not be used to build new schools or for operating expenses.

The New York City Board of Education will provide funds equaling up to 30 percent of the second-round grants. The United Federation of Teachers will help with teacher training but is not supplying money for the effort.