Juan Morel Campos Secondary School serves a low-income population, including many homeless children, non-English speakers and children with special needs. The school also houses one of the city's few bilingual Yiddish programs for children with disabilities. IS 71 has strong music, art and dance programs.

The chorus and band perform in the community, including local nursing homes, a few times a year. Community arts organizations bring working artists into the school, and students have shown their work at two galleries, one in Chelsea, the other in Williamsburg. Students have class trips to the Museum of Modern Art.

IS 71 faces many challenges: Attendance is poor and the suspension rate is high, with more than 200 suspensions in 2011. Teachers patrol the corridors with walkie-talkies and send any problem students straight to the principal's office. While we felt safe during our visit, we did notice some stragglers in the halls. To combat bad behavior, the school recruits older students to monitor the halls and serve as peer mediators, a program highlighted in a Daily News article.

Middle school test scores are very low and fewer than half the students graduate on time. However, more than three-quarters of the students eventually get their diplomas—a sign of the school's commitment to its high-needs population. "We don't give up on students," Principal Howard Fineman said. "We find ways to reach them."

Fineman encourages class discussions. For example, we saw a science class debate the ethics of using chimps in pharmaceutical testing. Students were alert and paying attention in many classes, though in a few classes we noticed students who were either not engaged or were misbehaving.

Almost all students have gym five days a week--a rarity these days. A downside: middle schoolers don't have regular outdoors recess because the school lacks a convenient playground, and 6th graders and some 7th graders eat lunch early, at 10:30 am. Seniors who are on-track to graduate may go out for lunch.

The high school has championship baseball and co-ed handball teams, girls' softball and girls' and boys' basketball teams. There is an active student government and after-school arts programs. There is a full-time college counselor. Two recent graduates were awarded scholarships to New York University.

Special education: Both the middle and high schools have "self-contained" classes—special education students only—in English, bilingual Spanish, and bilingual Yiddish. There are also "collaborative team teaching" (CTT) classes, in which two teachers, one with special education certification, share leadership of a class that mixes students with special need with general education students. There is a small District 75 program that shares the building and more than a dozen of those students are included in some general education classes at IS 71. The school is wheelchair accessible.

Admissions: District 14 for middle school. High school: Preference to continuing 8th graders, then to students who attend an information session. About 75 percent of the middle school students stay on for high school, said the principal. (Anna Schneider, December 2011)