School for Classics High School

A tiny school, School for Classics High School offers a supportive environment, a collaborative staff and the chance for students to perform in theater productions such as Hamlet and Guys and Dolls. Although most students come in with test scores well below the city average, three-quarters graduate in four years.

Across the street from the Cypress Hills public housing development, School for Classics shares a building with a neighborhood middle school, JHS 218 James P. Sinott, and a charter middle school, Invictus Preparatory Charter School. Students say they feel safe in the building, but there are some concerns about the surrounding neighborhood, according to school surveys.

Teachers give the school high marks for its work environment and are overwhelmingly positive about the principal, according to school surveys. Virtually all say they would recommend School for Classics to parents seeking a high school for their child. Teachers work well together, creating a coherent academic program that boosts achievement, according to an educator who visited the school for a Department of Education report called the Quality Review.

Teaching artists work with classroom teachers certified in theater and dance. There are several Advanced Placement classes and student may opt for a science program where they take chemistry, AP Environmental sciences and AP biology. 

 The small size clearly limits students’ options, and many students responding to the survey say the school does not offers enough classes and other activities to keep them interested. There is only one PSAL sport, basketball, with both boys and girls teams, for example.

Attendance is well below average, with almost half of the students missing at least a month of school. Few students are well-prepared for college.

However, a student interviewed by The Bell podcast praised the theater program, which allowed him to act in Hamlet and sing in Guys and Dolls. “We were working from September all through June and it was great,” the student, Noah, said. [school photo from The Bell podcast website]

Special education: The school provides team teaching classes with a mix of general and special education classes. More than a quarter of students are English language learners. The Quality Review said teachers make a special effort to ensure that students with disabilities and those learning English have access to the same curriculum as other students, noting, for example, that teachers in some subjects provide student with material translated into Spanish and Bengali along with glossaries, dictionaries and access to on-line translation tools.

Admission: School for Classics uses the educational option method, designed to admit student with a range of academic abilities, and accepts students from anywhere in New York City. (Gail Robinson, from DOE materials and web reports, October 2018)