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A New York City principal sees it as part of his mission to draw on community resources to expand learning opportunities for students.
The East-West School of International Studies in Queens, New York, was created in 2006 as part of New York City’s effort to expand student options by creating new small high schools. With 427 students in grades six through twelve, it is one of the smallest schools in the city.
In keeping with its name, the school has a strong focus on international studies and languages, particularly Asian languages. All students are expected to study Chinese, Japanese, or Korean for five hours a week. The school is also part of the Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance, a partnership between schools in New York City and London, for which the Annenberg Institute for School Reform provides support.
Benjamin Sherman, East-West’s principal, spoke to Voices in Urban Education editor Robert Rothman about leading a school with vibrant community partnerships.
Q: The focus of this issue is on leadership in schools that engage community partners. I wanted to get your perspective on what your role as a principal is in such a system and how that might be different from what you might be doing if you were just responsible for your building. How do you see your role in terms of working with partnerships?
SHERMAN: I like to get the kids out of the building for experiential learning. And I like to use resources in the community to bring experiences in for the kids. So I see my role as a connector, someone who goes out and creates a relationship and then puts the key pieces into place so that the relationship grows for the benefit of children.
That’s pretty much it. And then I try to manage the relationships with external partners once they’re
up and ready. It’s not perfect, but it moves along.
Q: What are some of the partnerships you have?
SHERMAN: We have a partnership with an organization called OATS – Older Adult Technology Services. This is a small nonprofit that builds on another partnership we have with a place called Self-Help Senior Services, which is a senior citizen residence –not a nursing home, but a senior citizen residence – for senior citizens who are living close to the poverty line or below the poverty line. They’re about a block away from our school. We get our kids in there volunteering with the seniors, and through OATS, our kids are trained to teach the seniors technology. That’s a very exciting partnership.
We have another partnership with a group called iMentor, which arranges one-on-one mentor relationships with our tenth-grade students. The relationships primarily consist of weekly e-mail letters from the mentor to the mentee and from the mentee to the mentor, on a set topic, following a curriculum. It involves tremendous reading and writing, use of technology, and an outside organization that trains mentors. Just another adult for kids to touch base with.
We have another relationship with a place called Community Works. Community Works is based out of Manhattan. It’s another small nonprofit. Right now they are sending an outside artist to our school for a multi-year push on a program focusing on an exploration of the Japanese American experience as internees in the internment camps during World War II. So the kids are learning about that experience, they’re creating artwork to interpret it, they’re working with this outside artist, and the artwork they’re creating is part of a multi-year traveling arts exhibition, which is travelling around the United States.
We’re working with TSIA, the Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance. That’s a partnership with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and a school in London. Each of us is studying kids who are having difficulty with literacy. We’ve been able to move kids through this partnership.
There are others I wish would happen. I’m looking at a swimming partnership that will get our kids into the local public pool. That one hasn’t happened. I’m trying to make that happen. I would like to get our kids in a partnership with an outfit called Recycle a Bicycle, where someone comes in and teaches the kids how to fix a clunker bicycle. They learn about the mechanics of bicycle repair and they learn a marketable skill. And then they get to keep the bicycle that they’ve just spent half a year fixing. That one hasn’t happened yet. I was able to bring that into my old school, but I haven’t been able to bring that relationship into my new school. But I’m still working on it; it’s in the works.
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