High School for Arts and Business

High School for Arts and Business (Arts & Business) is a medium-size school that offers some large school perks. Students can study commercial or fine arts, take courses in business management, participate in PSAL sports and after school clubs and choose from a nice selection of Advanced Placement (AP) and elective classes. Founded in 1997 to help alleviate overcrowding at Newtown High School, Arts & Business attracts students from across Queens.

What Arts & Business does best is ensure that all students enjoy opportunities beyond core academics. Starting in 9th grade students pursue concentrations in either arts or business. Art offerings include painting, drawing, photography, design and graphic design. In the Virtual Enterprise program, students take classes in computer applications and business management, and spend their senior year running a mock corporation. Students can also take classes in dance, instrumental music, music theory and can participate in chorus or one of the school's bands.

The school has a lot of strengths. It gets high marks from students and teachers for its safe and welcoming environment, based on their responses to the NYC School Survey. While the school admits a broad range of students—from struggling to high-achievers—its graduation, college readiness and attendance rates are well above the city-wide average. 

Since its inception, Arts & Business has been committed to offering AP classes to all students, not just high achievers. Many students take at least one AP class before graduation, and a core group of motivated students take multiple AP classes, some as early as 10th grade.

Foreign languages taught include French, Italian and Spanish. For Spanish, there are range of classes to accommodate native speakers, heritage speakers (educated in English, but exposed to Spanish in their homes) and non-native speakers (both educated and raised in English-only settings).

The school offers a range of supports to students and families. Parent workshops are offers both during the day and in the evening to accommodate their work schedules. Freshman who arrive with low literacy skills or who struggle in math are scheduled for extra support classes to help them catch up.

In 2011, the facilities got a much-needed upgrade—windows. Prior to their installation the entire two-story building, a former bowling alley, was windowless. The building also houses a Young Adult Borough (also known as a YABC), which runs evening classes for Queens students who want to graduate, but were unsuccessful in a traditional high school.

The school fields several PSAL sports teams and offers a range of clubs and extra-curricular activities. There are no outdoor facilities. Sports teams practice at Flushing Meadows Park.

Most graduates attend CUNY and SUNY schools.  Some attend private colleges including Ivy League schools. Each year the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers awards college scholarships to three graduates

SPECIAL EDUCATION: There are ICT (integrated co-teaching) classes. For English language learners (ELLs), the school offers bilingual (Spanish-English) instruction sections for all math, science and social studies classes required for graduation. Graduation rates for students with special needs as well as English language learners are far above the citywide average.

ADMISSIONS: Priority to Queens students. Admission is based on the educational option formula, which aims to enroll students of different of abilities. (Laura Zingmond, web reports, November 2018)