"It's in the dead center of anything going on in New York City, in the world," says a 12th grader we met at the High School for Leadership and Public Service about the location of his school. With the school situated in the financial district and in the shadow of where the World Trade Center once stood, students are in daily contact with commuters wearing pressed suits and carrying attaché cases, as well as police officers patrolling the area around Ground Zero. "It's a totally different experience. There's lots of history here," the senior concludes. An optional month-long summer program is offered to incoming 9th graders to help them get acclimated before school starts in September.

Housed in a narrow 14-story building where the wide windows of the 12th floor cafeteria provide a bird's eye view of Ground Zero, the school is in a prime position to draw upon the history of the area to engage its students. Sadly, the school struggles to reconcile its theme of public service with the Department of Education's demands that it improve test scores on Regents exams. On the one hand, the DOE's 2006 quality reviewers recommended the school offer students more public service opportunities by encouraging them to volunteer in direct service community organizations and fundraising events. On the other hand, the 2007 DOE progress report took the school to task for its failure to have enough students pass Regents exams.

Frank Brancato, who became principal in 2005, would like to do both, but for the time being, an emphasis on preparing for the Regents exams seems to take away from his effort to connect the role of public service to students' education. In the required leadership class, kids study historical leaders in hopes that it will help them remember key details for the Global History Regents exam. In the law class, Brancato says they cover Supreme Court cases that they need to know about for the US History exam.

On our visit, we saw solid instruction and dedicated teachers in classes where students were articulate and responsive to class discussions. They drew from their own experiences to answer questions about the characters portrayed in the play, A Raisin in the Sun in English class, and wrote essays about ancient Persia in history class. Only 20% of 9th graders come to the school reading on grade level, and we saw a lot of worksheets intended to provide them with a guide for doing their work. The school offers several Advanced Placement classes each year, and occasionally the opportunity to attend an AP class in a high school nearby if Leadership and Public Service cannot provide it. There's also a push to put more technology in the classroom, in the form of "Smartboards" and laptops connected to projectors.

Students made friendly contact with Brancato when he was out in the hallways. They also spoke well of their teachers, and the teachers spoke well of everyone. While there seemed to be a consensus that the school needed to get students to strive higher, many teachers felt that the administration was supportive of their work, and that their colleagues were "hardworking." Some have been with the school for almost a decade, some since the school's opening in 1993, and many were relatively new replacements for teachers who left after 9/11. One assistant principal told us that a sense of community persists even when teachers leave and the faculty changes. "I think I know every kid's name," he said with confidence.

About 80 students are paired up with mentors who are alumni of Syracuse University, a partner that helped found the school. The university also donates money and sends a handful of student teachers to work in New York City for a semester at a time.

Most extracurricular activities are relegated to after-school clubs sponsored by an outside organization, Educational Alliance. This program, known more commonly as DA3 or "Downtown After 3" by students, is shared with a sister school, the High School for Economics and Finance, located next door. The school does not have a gymnasium; students use a multipurpose room or play sports in Battery Park.

College admissions: Each year, many graduates go on to SUNY and CUNY colleges, with a small group going to private schools, including Syracuse University. The valedictorian of the class of 2007 is attending Princeton University. (Catherine Man, November 2007)

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