Leadership Village Academy, like the other schools in the Harlem Village Academies charter network, has high expectations, a strict code of conduct and an extended school day, as well as summer school for struggling kids. While the rules are firm, children seemed happy and engaged the day of our visit, dissecting owl pellets in science class and reading aloud with feeling in English class. The school is housed on the fourth floor of I.S. 45 (which also houses Coalition for Social Change High School).

As part of a charter network backed by heavy hittersRupert Murdoch, John Legend, Tiki Barber, Bill Cosby, Barry Diller, Jack Welch, Steve Forbes, Charles Bronfman, Richard Parsons and former city schools chancellor Cathie Black are on the advisory boardthe school is rich in resources, and its students have achieved impressive test scores.  Deborah Kenny, the network’s founder and highly-paid chief executive, who was named to Oprah’s Power List, has been lauded for placing a premium on teacher quality and accountability and fostering a culture in which educators feel valued.

Like many schools run by high-profile, rapidly expanding charter networks, Leadership Village Academy’s test scores, rates of student retention and attrition and teacher turnover have been closely watched.  Principal Sam Fragomeni told us that after much internal debate, the school ended its practice of encouraging under-performing students to leave. The attrition rate among both teachers and students has dropped, according to administrators, although about 10 percent of fifth graders leave for other middle schools, most of which begin in sixth grade.

The school day is long, starting at 7:50 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m. three days a week, with earlier dismissal on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Some classes employ technology in compelling ways.  In a math class, 5th graders input answers to Singapore Math problems into hand-held “clickers,” and the names of students who had yet to solve the problem were visible to the teacher and the rest of the class on the SMART board at the front of the room.

Teachers carry clipboards with barcodes representing each student, and use scanners worn around their necks to log demerits if a child misbehaves. Students with the fewest demerits get rubber bracelets that entitle them to special privileges, such as pizza parties or the chance to go out to recess without waiting in line first.

The academics are demanding. Eighth graders take the U.S. History Regents exam usually taken by 11^th graders.  But there is also time for fun. Halloween ignored in many middle schools is a big deal here; the principal and teachers dress in elaborate costumes and black lights and smoke machines transform the halls.

Students who spend most of their long days sitting up straight at desks and moving silently through the hallways enjoy kicking back in the cozy, well-stocked library, furnished with low-slung armchairs arrayed on a rug.  

The teachers’ lounge is a bustling workspace, with computers for each educator set up along communal tables. Teachers are encouraged to observe one another’s classes, and the bulletin board boasts shout-outs complimenting colleagues’ successful strategies.

Special education: The school has three special education teachers.  During our visit, we ran into Kenny, the network founder, and she said students who arrive with IEPs to receive special education services – “especially boys, who are often class clowns” are frequently misdiagnosed, and can improve rapidly in a more structured, but less restrictive environment, so her schools sometimes takes steps to get kids “decertified.” 

Admissions:  Lottery, with preference given to District 4 and siblings. (Amanda Hass, April 2011)