Humanities Preparatory Academy
School Practices
Scheduling & Grouping
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Scheduling
Heterogeneous Grouping
Small Learning Communities
Advisories
The Change Process
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Why Change?
Getting Started
Managing Change
Sustaining Reforms
Operations
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Facilities
Resource Allocation
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School Culture
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total)
Race & Diversity
Creating School Culture
Student Intervention
Starting a CES School
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Needs Assessment
Creating the Vision
Partnering with the Community
Recruiting Students
Drafting a Plan
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Philosophy
Humanities Prep is a democratic community, and democratic practices are a defining strength of the school's design. All of its structures were created to build a community of empowered individuals and cultivate the basic democratic habits of empathic interaction, listening, and debate. The school's small classes are heterogeneously grouped by ability and age, compositions that allow students to know and understand each other and discover a multiplicity of perspectives. And Humanities Prep's regular Advisory, Quad, and Town meetings further reinforce democratic community development within the school.
Achievements
Humanities Prep ensures that every child participates in his or her schooling and is known well by at least one adult. Through its efforts, the school has achieved higher attendance and lower suspension rates than its New York City counterparts, despite the fact that many students struggled at other schools before transferring to Humanities. (More than half of the school's students are at least a year behind their expected grade.)
Challenges
Humanities Prep demands much of its students. They must actively participate in the school community, learn collaboratively alongside their classroom peers, develop a portfolio of high-quality work, and take part in outside internship projects all the while preparing for college. Providing adequate individualized support for such a variety of endeavors will continually pose a unique organizational challenge for the school.
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