New Design High School

New Design High School offers students a chance to explore fashion, furniture, construction and digital media through design. Founded in 2003, it is one of five small high schools housed in the Seward Park Educational Campus. 

Each year, students focus on a different theme and type of media. In 9th grade, they study identity through visual arts; in 10th grade, they explore community through fashion or construction; in 11th, three-dimensional perspectives drives the furniture design curriculum; and in 12th grade, students consider their future in digital media or in advanced fashion design. 

New Design does a good job helping children who enter high school performing below grade level graduate on time. The CEP (comprehensive educational plan) boasts the school is “on the verge of being an elite school in New York City serving under-served students,” and has one of the best on-time graduation rates of the many “Ed Opt” admissions schools.

The school has an ambitious plan to get more teens ready for college, according to the CEP. Basic reading and writing skills are a focus in lessons but so are research and debate. Tenth grade global history students wrote essays about the post-World War II partitions of Germany, Palestine and India citing examples from at least four sources, according to the Quality Review. Eleventh graders designed their own lessons to teach the concepts of circles in math. The teacher provided laptops, reference notes, model problems and vocabulary words, and assisted a child learning English by writing notes on his paper, according to the report.

Students meet weekly with adult mentors to discuss strategies for how to study and manage their time. They practice the “dump-and-clump” strategy, for instance, a way to study difficult information by grouping lists of words together, according to the Quality Review. Students lead their own parent-teacher conferences and are encouraged to help and tutor each other. 

Attendance and safety are improving. At the same time, children are suspended in greater numbers than at most city schools. The Quality Review says teachers receive workshops on dealing with trauma and conflict. Some children miss a month or more of school. In addition to a social worker and an attendance coordinator, five social work interns provide case management for students struggling with long-term absences. A new text messaging service helps staff stay in touch with families. 

Special Education: A parent told the visitor who conducted the Quality Review that her child has received a lot of support and because of that he is now an honors student. Most children with special needs graduate on time, at a rate far above the citywide average.

Admissions: Students are admitted according to the educational option formula designed to ensure a mix of low-. average- and high-achieving studenta. (Lydie Raschka, DOE data, November 2018)