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Our Insights

What’s Special

Strong emphasis on research, writing and public speaking; students learn American Sign Language

The Downside

Student attendance needs to improve

At Landmark High School, students learn to speak up, reflect and tackle challenging work. Rather than taking Regents exams in most subjects, students conduct in-depth projects and complete research papers, which they present before a panel of teachers for review. The school is very small, and teachers and staff get to know students very well.

Landmark is part of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, a group of schools exempt from administering all but the English Regents exam. Eleventh- and 12th-graders must complete PBATs (performance based assessment tasks), which involve extensive research and reading as well as writing and presenting papers in English, math, history and science on topics of their own choosing, such as “Sunshine Across the United States: Using Trigonometric Functions to Analyze Sunrise, Sunset and Daylight Dates” (math); “How Do Gender and Age Affect Prism Adaption” (science); and “The Journey to Happiness in Capitalist Societies” (English).

Overall, Landmark students take the same range of courses as those offered at most city schools, but teachers delve more deeply into topics and encourage students to be flexible thinkers. Projects, presentations, reading, writing and rich class discussions are emphasized in all grades and subjects.

We visited the school in late January during “mini PBAT week,” a time when students in most other high schools are taking Regents or end-of-semester exams. Instead of sitting silently in classrooms taking tests, Landmark students across the school were presenting their work to peers and completing tasks on their own and in groups to demonstrate what they learned to date. In a 10th-grade English class, students were delivering speeches they drafted, getting feedback on both the style and substance of their presentation. Elsewhere, 12th-graders taking statistics discussed the formulas they used to analyze and identify relationships among a data set.

Some upperclassmen were completing their full PBATs. During the lengthy oral defense portion of an English PBAT, a 12th-grader fielded lots of challenging questions and pointed feedback after presenting an analysis of A Farewell to Arms through the Marxist lens, as well as a literature review of her four favorite books read during high school.

Despite Landmark’s strengths, some challenges persist such as student attendance, which is improving, but has a ways to go. Likewise for the school's overall graduation rate, though it is rising steadily, reaching 75 percent for the 2017-18 school year.

To serve the broad range of students in the class, teachers tend to pair students with similar skill levels together. So it’s typical to find different groups of students working on different level texts and assignments—all geared toward the lesson of the day.

In addition to studying algebra 1 and 2, geometry and trigonometry, all students learn statistics, a very handy skill for college-bound kids. Pre-calculus is offered as an elective.

All students learn American Sign Language for their foreign language. “We have a lot of students who are already fluent in Spanish, so we wanted to teach a language where everyone started at the same place,” said principal Caron Pinkus. “And knowing ASL is a great skill.”

[Susanna Tenny became principal in fall 2019. A former assistant principal and teacher, she has a masters degree in mathematics and finance from Columbia University.]

There are elective classes such as journalism, creative writing, music production, drumming, film appreciation, anime, SAT prep and computer programming. Beginning in 10th grade, students may take college courses for free at Manhattan Borough Community College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice or Baruch College.

Each teacher serves as an adviser to a group of students, meeting with them in small groups several times a week and keeping tabs on their attendance and academic progress. One parent said she appreciated the level of communication she has with the school, such as being able to text her child’s adviser whenever she has a question and getting up to speed on the college admissions process.

There’s a college office lead by a full-time college adviser who has a good record of helping students obtain full-tuition scholarships. Students who are not college-bound get assistance finding jobs post-graduation. “We put together a plan for everyone,” said the college adviser.

SPECIAL EDUCATION: There are ICT (Integrated Collaborative Teaching) classes and SETSS. The school also offers a class to help students with special needs prepare for the PBATs. (Laura Zingmond, January 2018, principal update Aug. 2020)

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School Stats

Citywide Average Key
This school is Better Near Worse than the citywide average

Academics

School
Citywide
How many students graduate in 4 years?
 
76%
How many students with disabilities graduate in 4 years?
 
64%
How many English language learners graduate in 4 years?
 
55%
Average daily attendance
 
72%
How many students miss 18 or more days of school?
 
84%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school offers enough activities and services for their children's needs?
 
100%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school works to achieve the goals of their students' IEPs?
 
100%
From the 2021-22 School Quality Guide and 2020-21 NYC School Survey

Students

329
Number of students
Citywide Average is 599

Race/Ethnicity


School
Citywide
Low-income students
 
82%
Students with disabilities
 
28%
Multilingual learners
 
8%
From the 2022-23 Demographic Snapshot

Safety & Vibe

School
Citywide
How many students were suspended?
 
1%
How many students say they feel safe in the hallways, bathrooms and locker rooms?
 
84%
How many students think bullying happens most or all of the time at this school?
 
49%
How many students say that some are bullied at their school because of their gender or sexual orientation?
 
29%
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey and 2019-20 NY State Report Card

Faculty & Staff

School
Citywide
How many teachers say the principal is an effective manager?
 
61%
3.0
Years of principal experience at this school
Citywide Average is 7
155
Number of students for each guidance counselor or social worker
Citywide Average is 157

Teachers’ Race/Ethnicity


How many teachers have 3 or more years of experience teaching?
 
78%
Are teachers effective?
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey, 2021-22 School Quality Guide, 2019-20 Report on School-Based Staff Demographics, 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

 
5%

Computer Science

 
15%

Physics

 
33%

Advanced Foreign Language

 
36%

AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science

 
19%

AP/IB Math or Science

Not offered in 2019-20

Music

 
16%
From unpublished, anonymized data from the 2021-22 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?
 
51%
How many students take a college-level course or earn a professional certificate?
 
36%
How many students who have graduated from this high school stay in college for at least 3 semesters?
 
52%
From the 2020-21 and 2021-22 School Quality Guide
How many students filled out a FAFSA form by the end of their senior year?
 
58%
From the 2022-23 FAFSA data released by Federal Student Aid, brought you by
For more information about our data sources, see About Our Data · More DOE statistics for this school

Programs & Admissions

From the 2024 High School Directory

Landmark High School (M91A)

Admissions Method: Ed. Opt.

Program Description:

We are a small, college-preparatory school that offers a challenging academic curriculum with an emphasis on reading, collaboration, and project-based learning. All students have the opportunity to graduate with 13 college credits through our College Now For All initiative. We are part of the NY Consortium, and students present 6 PBATs (performance-based assessment tasks) before a committee in order to graduate. Our advisory program supports a close-knit, positive learning culture.

Offerings

From the 2024 High School Directory

Language Courses

American Sign Language

Advanced Courses

Algebra II (Advanced Math), AP Biology, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Seminar, AP United States History, Calculus (Advanced Math), Chemistry (Advanced Science), ELA (College Course [Credited])

Boys PSAL teams

Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Soccer, Volleyball, Wrestling

Girls PSAL teams

Basketball, Bowling, Softball, Tennis, Volleyball

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

NYC Department of Education: MySchools

Contact & Location

Location

351 West 18 Street
Manhattan NY 10011

Trains: 1 Line to 18th St; A Line, C Line, E Line, L Line to 14th St

Buses: M11, M12, M14A-SBS, M14D-SBS, M20, M23-SBS, M55, M7, SIM1C, SIM33C, SIM3C, SIM4C


Contact

Principal: Susanna Tenny

Parent Coordinator: Siu Chan

Website

Other Details

Shared campus? Yes

This school shares the Bayard Rustin Educational Campus with five other schools

Uniforms required? No
Metal detectors? No

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