High school to get view of the world

International Studies program at CSI to begin in the fall and will stress global awareness

Staten Island Advance - May 9, 2005

Students won't hear high-pitched, military-style bells on the hour or teachers beseeching classmates in the hallways to remove headphones and do-rags. They won't exit their school onto busy streets to stand elbow-to-elbow with their friends in packed public bus shelters.

Instead, pupils at the College of Staten Island High School for International Studies will occupy the first floor of a modern building, with views of college students holding books in their laps, sitting cross-legged on the grass.

The long-anticipated public school will become a reality in September, when the 108 students making up the inaugural class report.

The principal, Aimee Horowitz, has been shaping an academic framework intended to inspire their awareness about global interconnection.

"It's a little like being in a private school," said Ms. Horowitz. "Every teacher knows not only your name but also your learning style and hobbies."

The School of International Studies is the borough's only boutique-style school among 157 citywide.

It will be funded primarily by the city Department of Education, enriched by grants from the Asia Society and will receive $100,000 annually over the next four years from the Gates Foundation.

Ms. Horowitz left a career as an attorney in California 10 years ago to become a New York City schoolteacher. In 1999, she received a promotion to assistant principal of social studies at Edward Murrow High School in Brooklyn. School administrators are honing the focus of the CSI High School for International Studies with college professors and the Asia Society -- pioneers in the field of small schools, who teach how to negotiate the electronically borderless world.

Next year's entire teaching staff of seven should be hired in the upcoming month, said the principal.

Among the perks for students will be Wednesday brown-bag lunches with experts in international policy, access to campus buildings and the opportunity to meet with professors one-on-one or sit in on CSI classes. The school design hinges on 120 hours of community service required for graduation, where students will heighten their cross-cultural awareness.

PARTICIPATION EXPECTED

But the linchpin of the school's success is participation by parents, students and other "stake holders," Ms. Horowitz said.

"We have a vision statement and a mission statement, but obviously, parents and teachers and students are going to have a big part in the decisions we make," said the principal. She hopes to throw a family-style barbecue over the summer for students and parents.
Although students' names have been made available, the exact demographic breakdown of the student body has yet to be revealed, according to the Education Department.
Still, Ms. Horowitz said, she expects diversity at the school because students were selected by a random computer shuffle -- with priority going to Staten Islanders who attended informational sessions in February.

The Education Department has been criticized for what some called an under-representation of special education students at the city's small schools; enrollment figures were not available for the breakdown at the CSI school.

According to preliminary information compiled by the Asia Society, student achievement level of the incoming class follows the typical bell curve, with a quarter performing above grade level, half in the average range and the rest in need of an academic push.
Despite a requirement for interested eighth-graders to resubmit the high school applications they had turned in months earlier -- causing some to risk forfeiting seats at elite schools -- 213 students vied for the spots at the School for International Studies.

"Our hope is to build the school as a Staten Island resource and it will reflect the growing diversity on Staten Island; it will be a way to get kids of all sorts of economic and linguistic and cultural backgrounds to learn and grow together," said Michael Levine, the director of education for the not-for-profit Asia Society.

OTHER MODELS

The Asia society launched the Henry Street School in Manhattan last year, and another Manhattan school will open along with the CSI school in September.

Henry Street School students this year sponsored a telecast that connected 15 city schools with teens in Sri Lanka; raised money in the wake of the tsunami to build schools in the sea-ravaged country, and many volunteered for international AIDS organizations.
"The basic idea is that kids today are very interested in the world around them but they don't typically get knowledge of other regions and cultures through the traditional curriculum," Levine said.

The Staten Island school is the first Asia Society-sponsored project to be nestled on a college campus.

"This is an idea that just snowballed," said Francisco Soto, the dean of humanities and social sciences at the college, who will serve as a liaison with the high school. "We have so much in place in terms of infrastructure to offer the students."

Incoming CSI ninth-grader Justin Friedman gave up acceptance at the elite Brooklyn Technical to apply. He said he expects the experience will merit the chance he took.
"I wanted to try something that was brand-new," he said. "We get to study about other cultures and stuff. I'll learn to have a little more respect for the other cultures. It's probably going to be really fun."
 

By Deborah Young
Reprinted here with permission from the