MS 131 is a large middle school housed in a strangely configured building with a needy student population. Despite these obstacles, a smart and dedicated group of educators have created a warm community with one of the best technology programs in the city, a creative project-based social studies curriculum, vigorous math classes, and a strong program for English language learners.

Building and location: MS 131 is located in Chinatown, and shares a building with Pace High School and, as of September 2009, the Emma Lazarus High School for English Language Learners, a transfer high school. The layout of the rounded building is confusing, with curved hallways and not much natural light. Some of the old metal lockers along the walls are broken. The architecture is not conducive to creating a cozy, community feeling, but teachers and administers do their best to compensate by decorating the walls with student work and minimizing students' commutes between classes by clustering classrooms.

School environment and culture: Principal Phyllis Tam, an alumna of the school, was a District 2 math coach before returning to MS 131 as an assistant principal. She recruited her three assistant principals away from popular schools, like the Greenwich Village Middle School, and gave them each control of an academy. Students spend all three years in their academy, which each have one floor of the building and function like mini-schools.

Unlike many other schools in the district, MS 131 has a high population of students who qualify for free lunch and require English language or special education services. Every January 60-70 new students enroll in the school, almost all of whom have just arrived in the country. The teachers and administrators do a good job of maintaining high academic expectations while offering a strong support system. The school is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., there is a guidance counselor in each academy, a weekly advisory class, and a warm dean's office, where "logical consequences" are handed out rather than punishments. The day we visited, the principal slipped out for two hours to visit a homeless shelter where a few of the students were living. Teachers said that Tam is constantly striving to improve her understanding of how to help students succeed.

The school has a large population of immigrants, many of whom came from China, and the community celebrates both American traditions and the immigrant experience with equal gusto. For Thanksgiving, every class receives a donated turkey, and teaches talk about the tradition of immigration in the United States over potluck meals that integrate typical fare with any food students want to include from their own culture. For the Chinese New Year, students make paper lanterns with recycled material and logos based on shapes they have photographed around the neighborhood. The lanterns eventually hang in a nearby park. Throughout the school there is evidence of teachers and students learning together about culture, tradition, and change.

Teaching and curriculum: Technology is integrated into almost every activity at MS 131. All 800 students have their own personal laptop that they check out daily and use throughout the day. The laptop screens spin around, and when teachers want the students to all look up from their computers, they tell them to turn the screens to minimize the potential distraction. We also saw a teacher ask students to solve a problem on their laptops and then spin the screens around to display their answer, allowing the teacher to quickly assess how well the whole class understood the lesson. All of the teachers had SMARTboards. Students have google email accounts, and teachers send homework and school assignments via email.

In many classes, student share tables rather than sit at individual desks. In one class, students were conducting a mock-senate session and acting as specific United States senators. In another class, students had created a professionally-printed book of immigration stories based on interviews. "Students are doing the bulk of the work in the classroom," rather than the teachers standing and lecturing as students listen, an assistant principal told us. Teachers and administrators designed the curriculum, which is mapped out carefully online.

Sixth grade students sample all four art subjects that the school offers: dance, music, drama, and studio art. In 7^th and 8^th grade students choose which art they would like to "major" in. We saw student musicians performing in a morning concert, student dancers spending their lunchtime in the basement dance studio, and 8th graders working on studio art portfolios for admissions to art-focused high schools.

Family participation: Family participation is minimal. A guidance counselor estimated that only about 15 percent of families are actively involved.

After school: There is a YMCA program located in the school basement. The school also offers other afterschool activities, including a cooking club, a math club, chess, dance and electric base. Approximately 350 students stay after school every day.

Special education: There are three self-contained classes and several CTT classes.

English Language Learners: MS 131 benefits from an extremely experienced staff of teachers of English as a Second Language. The school was the subject of a 2003 book called An Island of English about effective English language education for immigrant students, and the school prides itself on its ESL program. There are self-contained classes for "new arrivals," but administrators would rather integrate students learning English with the rest of the student body whenever possible. Student computers are equipped with Chinese software that allows students to read, write and print in Chinese.

Admissions: Neighborhood school and a District 2 middle school choice. (Lindsey Whitton Christ, December 2008)