Lafayette High School seems to be emerging from a tension-filled past to become a decent high school option for students in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. In April 2006, Lafayette was removed from the city's list of most dangerous schools, and Principal Jolanta Rohloff, who took the helm in 2005, has now turned her attention to improving academic performance and fostering harmony between the long-feuding racial groups at the school.

Lafayette is truly diverse, with students speaking more than 30 languages at home. Several years ago, the school was reported to have significant racial tension between its black and Asian students, deepening Bensonhurst parents' desire to get their children into schools outside of the neighborhood. Rohloff believes that this tension has largely evaporated, a result of the administration's vigorous effort to work with community leaders. Representatives from the Chinese, Russian, Polish, and African-American communities meet with administrators monthly "to make sure that I know what's going on outside, and they know what's happening inside the school," Rohloff said. Ultimately, Rohloff would like to see more students enrolling from the neighborhood, which she believes will improve attendancefewer than 80 percent of students attend on an average dayand provide more "community accountability."

One way the administration has attracted neighborhood students to Lafayette is by making the school more welcoming to and effective for immigrants. In January 2006, the school began integrating immigrant students learning English into mainstream classes for the academic subjects. A new multicultural club has staged performances showcasing students' cultures, and the large, airy library recently received an infusion of books appropriate for English language learners. In fall 2006, the school will offer Chinese and Russian language instruction for the first time in years.

Rohloff has also attempted to make the school's Asian students more comfortable by hiring a Chinese speaker to head the guidance department. Iris Chin has made her services available to all students by opening the guidance office during students' lunchtimes and allowing students to craft their own schedules, which she thinks gives students more pride in their academic situation.

While passing rates on most Regents exams remain low, the school has raised scores by ending the longstanding practice of allowing students to sitwithout additional preparationfor exams they failed in the past. Now students must attend 20 tutoring sessions to be eligible to take the exam again. Rohloff has also launched plans to expand the offerings for the school's strongest students by opening the city's first "virtual classroom," which allows individual students to take a wide range of courses online.

The biggest challenge has been changing the culture surrounding achievement, according to Rohloff. "No longer is the minimum acceptable," she said, noting that a score of 55 on Regents exams has stopped counting as a passing grade. Rohloff said teachers, too, are being asked to change their attitudes. "Knowing content is not enough," she said. "You have to see reading, writing, and students engaged." Teachers are accustomed to traditional teaching methods, relying on lecture-style classes rather than ones that include more discussion and project work. Unfortunately, Rohloff said, teachers are unaccustomed to offering project-based instruction, and change has been slow.

Indeed, the school has many experienced teachers and relatively low staff turnover, which gives the school stability but can be a problem when administrators are trying to encourage more progressive teaching methods. We saw several classes in which students were unengaged and producing uninspired work, such as in a computer class where students used language straight from their instructional material to make small posters about their career aspirations. In an 11th grade English class, students were reading the autobiography of a famous surgeon and answering content-based questions that did not ask them to think analytically. Students taking freshman math for the second time struggled to pay attention under the less-than-commanding presence of their teacher.

On our visit, we did see a few classes where experienced teachers offered compelling lessons. In an excellent English as a Second Language class, students were writing about English language adages and had read Roald Dahl's popular book, Matilda. In one math class, the teacher used technology to draw students in, and students in an Advanced Placement calculus class were intently focused on their work. Students in the health careers academy, a selective program, spoke glowingly about spending their mornings working directly with patients in hospitals and nursing homes.

Simply put, the school feels not like the scene of recent racial tension but like a typical American high school, replete with extracurricular options and electives that include foreign languages, cosmetology, and the culinary arts. When we visited, class changes were loud, possibly because there were few teachers in the halls, but orderly. The cafeteria looked like a relaxed clubhouse, with a typical noise level and ping pong tables and board games providing an alternative to sitting for the entire period.

After school: Most clubs meet during lunch, and they include art, drama, tai chi, Web design, mock trial, photography, and newspaper clubs. There is tutoring in all subjects after school, as well as a full complement of sports teams.

Special education: The school has several "self-contained" classes (for students with special needs only) and has recently launched a "collaborative team teaching" (CTT) program in which two teachers work in a classroom mixing special needs and general education students.

Admissions: Citywide. The health careers program is an education option program that reserves some slots for high achievers. Students graduate from the program with an advanced Regents diploma. (Philissa Cramer, March 2006)

p>