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Institute for Collaborative Education (ICE)

Grades: 6-12
Staff Pick

Our Insights

What’s Special

School promotes love of learning—not test prep

The Downside

Limited upper level course offerings, especially in high school

The Institute for Collaborative Education (ICE) is a small, progressive secondary school that strives to teach children to love learning, not just to take standardized tests. Children may act out scenes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as part of their study of Ancient Rome, use earthquake data to map fault lines on their computers, or play in the middle school's award winning jazz band.

ICE belongs to a consortium of 30 New York state high schools whose students are exempt from taking most state-mandated Regents exams. (Middle school students must take the state English and math tests, and high school student must take the English Regents.) Children are evaluated based on their written essays and oral presentations called portfolios.

The school is based on the philosophy of the education reformer Theodore Sizer, who believed that small schools that teach a few subjects well are more effective than large schools that attempt to teach many subjects.

The small size is both the school’s strength and its weakness. With just 60 or 70 students in each grade, ICE is an intimate place where teachers get to know students well. Parents say there is a “family feel to the school” and students get an unusual level of support from the college office. At the same time, course offerings are limited. Only two years of high school Spanish are offered. There are no Advanced Placement classes. (Students may arrange to take courses at nearby colleges.)

Seniors have internships, rather than regular academic coursework, for their entire second semester, working at architects' offices, law firms, art galleries and a science research labs at local universities.

It's an informal place. Students call teachers by their first names and sometimes use slang when speaking to adults. Blue jeans are the rule, on adults as well as kids. Kids can be boisterous during class changes. But there is real learning going on, and kids seem happy and engaged. There are some non-traditional activities (like testing the water quality of the Bronx River in a biology class) as well as tried-and-true reading assignments like Macbeth or The Great Gatsby.

Seventh-graders take an integrated math/science class called "smath," where they build models of roller coasters and catapults; 11th-graders may take statistics and an introduction to neuroscience course that's so popular that a few graduates have gone on to study neuroscience in college. Students have won awards from the NYC Science and Engineering Fair for projects such as one on the effect of transracial adoptions.

Peter Karp, a former science teacher, became principal in 2012, replacing founding principal John Pettinato who retired after 20 years at ICE.

The Institute for Collaborative Education occupies the 5th floor and part of the 4th floor of the former Stuyvesant High School, which it shares with Health Professions and Human Services High School and a District 75 program for autistic children.

College acceptances include Brown, Colby, Sarah Lawrence, Yale, the University of Chicago, Cornell, Penn State, Middlebury College, Hampshire College, Bard, Bucknell, and College of the Atlantic.

SPECIAL EDUCATION: The school offers both “push in” and “pull out” special education teacher support services (SETSS). There are a few team-teaching classes in the high school.(Clara Hemphill, September 2018; admissions update, 2022)

School Stats

Academics

School
Citywide
How many students graduate in 4 years?
 
97%
How many students with disabilities graduate in 4 years?
 
100%
Average daily attendance
 
95%
How many students miss 18 or more days of school?
 
12%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school offers enough activities and services for their children's needs?
 
62%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school works to achive the goals of their students' IEPs?
 
62%
From the 2020-21 School Quality Guide and 2020-21 NYC School Survey

Students

493
Number of students
611 Citywide Average

Race/Ethnicity


School
Citywide
Low-income students
 
29%
Students with disabilities
 
22%
Multilingual learners
 
0%
From the 2020-21 Demographic Snapshot

Safety & Vibe

School
Citywide
How many students were suspended?
 
0%
How many students say they feel safe in the hallways, bathrooms and locker rooms?
 
100%
How many students think bullying happens most or all of the time at this school?
 
14%
How many students say that some are bullied at their school because of their gender or sexual orientation?
 
14%
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey and 2019-20 NY State Report Card

Faculty & Staff

School
Citywide
9.6
Years of principal experience at this school
8 Citywide Average
226
Number of students for each guidance counselor or social worker
226 Citywide Average

Teachers’ Race/Ethnicity


How many teachers have 3 or more years of experience teaching?
 
75%
Are teachers effective?
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey, 2020-21 School Quality Guide, 2019-20 NY State Report Card, 2021 Guidance Counselor Report and this school's most recent Quality Review Report

Advanced Courses

Which students have access to advanced courses at this school? Learn more

Calculus

Not offered in 2019-20

Computer Science

Not offered in 2019-20

Physics

 
50%

Advanced Foreign Language

 
24%

AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science

Not offered in 2019-20

AP/IB Math or Science

Not offered in 2019-20

Music

 
17%
From unpublished, anonymized data from the 2019-20 school year provided by the New York State Education Department, brought to you by

College Readiness

School
Citywide
How many students graduate with test scores high enough to enroll at CUNY without remedial help?
 
69%
How many students take a college-level course or earn a professional certificate?
 
50%
From the 2020-21 School Quality Guide
How many students filled out a FAFSA form by the end of their senior year?
 
74%
From the 2020-21 FAFSA data released by Federal Student Aid, brought you by
How many graduates of this school received Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funding to attend a NYS college?
 
28%
How many of those TAP recipients made it through college? Learn more
From unpublished, anonymized student-level data for the class of 2014 provided by the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) in coordination with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), brought to you by
For more information about our data sources, see About Our Data · More DOE statistics for this school

Programs & Admissions

From the 2021 High School Directory

Institute for Collaborative Education

Admissions Method: Screened

Program Description:

Humanities (History & Literature), Mathematics, Applied Sciences, Spanish, Arts & Electives.

Offerings

From the 2021 High School Directory

Language Courses

Spanish

Boys PSAL teams

Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Table Tennis

Girls PSAL teams

Basketball, Indoor Track, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball

Read about admissions, academics, and more at this school on NYCDOE’s MySchools

NYC Department of Education: MySchools

Contact & Location

Location

345 East 15th Street
Manhattan NY 10003

Trains: 4 Line, 5 Line, 6 Line, N Line, Q Line, R Line, W Line to 14th St-Union Square; L Line to 1st Ave

Buses: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, M1, M101, M102, M103, M14A, M14D, M15, M15-SBS, M2, M23-SBS, M3, M34-SBS, M34A-SBS, M8, M9, X1, X10, X10B, X12, X14, X17, X2, X27, X28, X37, X38, X42, X5, X63, X64, X68, X7, X9


Contact

Principal: Peter Karp

Parent Coordinator: Carolyn Cohen

Website

Other Details

Shared campus? Yes

This school shares the former Stuyvesant Campus with two other schools

Uniforms required? No
Metal detectors? No

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