The Collaboration HS Design Team

Our team represents the voices of educators, parents, educational coaches, community leaders, and most importantly, students who recognize the need to rethink how schools “work.” Our team is talented, diverse and includes educators from various DOE schools and offices. We have engaged experts from the Institute for Student Achievement as embedded thought partners. The most important members of the team are the students. They have gone through the NYC public school system and their thoughts and ideas are imperative to our mission. 

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We asked current students what they needed to succeed and feel empowered. They expressed their wish for schools to view them beyond data, and more like active voices regarding issues within their own communities – from the lack of safe places to skateboard to the lack of funding in arts education. Project based learning should build the kind of bridge between students and communities that promotes a deeper sustained sense of self, belonging, and stewardship.  We hope to correspond with organizations such as Buttrflydreamz, To Be Heard, Girls Who Code, Hudson Guild, and NYC Civil Rights Coalition to name a few.

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Team members have collaborated to design bold teaching and learning models in existing NYC schools. Several members have designed and successfully opened new small NYC schools. Our team has experience building interdisciplinary and antiracist curriculum for the city, reaching underserved students, creating conferences that engage educators to learn and share innovative educational practices, and implementing leading social-emotional learning and restorative justice programs within NYC public schools. 

We have identified areas for growth. Adding more NYC parents as Design Consultants once we have a budget will strengthen the connection between our team and our potential student body. Another area is the inclusion of partners who can help us recruit diverse and representative teaching/staff talent. While the whole of our Design Team includes a diverse population of students, parents and partners, the educators on the team are not equally as diverse. Representation and diversity are paramount to our vision; this is an immediate priority for developing our talent and team base. Another area of growth is connecting with partners to ensure that our learning model is robust and sustainable. We would also like to identify an NYCDOE liaison to ensure that our innovative model is supported within the DOE’s current regulations and standards. 

DIVERSITY AND EQUITY

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At CHS, we define diversity, equity, and inclusion in relation to the multiple and intersecting identities that our students, our educators and our parents bring to the school community. The CHS design team is committed to including a wide range of racial, ethnic, sexual and gender identities, physical abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, life experiences, and beliefs in our school community and specifically in our decision-making teams. Because we believe the importance of education for all, inclusion will be addressed by intentionally including special education students in all aspects of the school design and governance.

The student population will include a large percentage of Black and Latinx students with an emphasis on special needs and ELLs. Based on 2019 NYCDOE data, college readiness rates for Black and Latinx students were below 50%. As a learning community, CHS intends to disrupt the cycle of insufficient expectations these data reveal. CHS’s anitracist co-constructed project-based curriculum will have high expectations and a focus on 21st-century skills. Black and Latinx students, and low-income students are also disproportionately served in non-inclusive, special classrooms. (https://research.steinhardt.nyu.edu/site/research_alliance/2018/11/26/what-percentage-of-nycs-students-with-disabilities-are-served-in-inclusive-settings-exploring-equity-and-changes-over-time/). CHS will address equity issues with smaller classes which will easily adjust to provide support when needed and an integrated co-teaching model in every classroom. 

CHS’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion links to the great potential and diversity that exists in the New York City community and in our public schools. We will know we have been successful if we engage and keep students, educators, community members, and school partners who reflect the diversity of New York City as part of our school community. We will know we are successful when we are engaged in productive struggle with diverse members of our school community toward creating an equitable learning community for all.