New Utrecht High School hunkers huge on its block, a brick and mortar monolith. But inside, more than 3,000 students flow smoothly between classes and seem well-engaged by their work. Few side conversations competed with lessons on the day we visited, and we saw no students disrupting classes or talking back to teachers or peers. This atmosphere stems in part from the school's leadership classes and peer-mediation program, where more than 100 student mediators resolve disputes in the 29 languages spoken by the pupils. But a large measure of the credit is due to the faculty, a third of whom are New Utrecht grads, and the school's administration.

"The students are really great at the school. However the number of investigations at the school is jaw dropping. The UFT chapter leader insisted that there have been over one hundred... read more

Katie Taylor, who taught at Canarsie High School before coming to New Utrecht, says "There are so many fewer discipline problems. I would trust my kids with these teachers." (October 2005)