Rockaway Collegiate High School

Rockaway Collegiate High School opened in September 2011 in the Beach Channel Educational Campus to give students extra time and support to help them succeed in high school and beyond. It tries to bring what it describes as a “college bound culture” to the low-income Rockaway community.

To aid this, Rockaway is a community school providing an array of services for students and their families in collaboration with Partnership with Children. The school also works with a family services organization called Sheltering Arms to provide counseling to some students and their families.

Students in 9th grade are programmed for a double period of algebra, and tutoring is available during, before and after school. School staff has sought out various techniques, such as use of visual material, to help all students, but particularly low-achieving ones.

Many students arrive substantially below grade level and continue to struggle academically. The school’s Comprehensive Educational Plan notes that Rockaway Collegiate students are slow to amass credits and that pass rates on some Regents exams are low. About two thirds of students graduate in four years, and only about a quarter are considered ready for college-level work. Fewer than half enroll in a college or career training program within six months of high school graduation.

The school has faced many challenges. A year after it opened, Hurricane Sandy struck, forcing students to leave the Beach Channel Education Campus for months. More recently the Department of Education placed a charter school in the building, over the opposition of many in the community. And an article in the New York Post  highlighted a lack of order and discipline in the school. Rockaway Collegiate also has had three principals in five years.

The school offers several Advanced Placement classes, dance and visual arts. The photo above shows students on a field trip to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (photo from JBWR website). Rockaway Collegiate shares the Beach Channel campus with the charter school – New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities IV – as well as a 6-12 school – Channel View School for Research – and Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability. The campus has extensive athletic facilities, and fields a variety athletics teams that compete as the Dolphins.

Special education: Rockaway has both team teaching classes with a mix of special and general education students and self-contained classes for students with disabilities. 

Admissions: Rockaway Collegiate serves mostly the surrounding community and gives priority to Queens students but will accept students from anywhere in the city. It does not screen applicants. The school usually does not fill all seats and has some openings for in-coming 10th graders. (Gail Robinson, DOE material, September 2018)