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NEW YORK, NY January 16, 2004 — The Bloomberg Administration is now in the process of phasing out many of the city's large, failing high schools and replacing them with highly specialized smaller schools. But as WNYC's Beth Fertig reports, in our ongoing series Reading, Writing and Reform, the demand is already far outpacing the limited supply. Especially in the Bronx.

It was just one degree above zero on Saturday morning. But that didn't stop thousands of parents and students in the Bronx from attending an unusual kind of high school fair.

ROBERT: It's 329.

RACHEL: I know but - I'm looking for Bronx school of law and finance that's 319.

Rachel Robinson and her son were pushing their way through a crowded hallway on the third floor of Christopher Columbus High School. A large school that's now getting extra police because of safety concerns. The corridor was packed with other parents and their 8th graders, all waiting to attend a series of orientation sessions about small, new high schools.

RACHEL: Well I'm really looking for a smaller class setting to send my son because I think he would do better in a small setting, because I feel the bigger classes he would be lost.

But her son, Robert, wasn't quite as enthusiastic.

ROBERT: Because small school is boring I need a bigger class so I can talk around with and have fun.

RACHEL: See this is the reason why he needs to be in a smaller class, cause when he's in a bigger classes he wants to goof off with the other kids.

Down the hall, thirteen year old Ladeidra McCullough was much more excited. She said she came because many of the regular high schools in the Bronx are failing.

MCCULLOUGH: I'm looking for something that's better cause I want to be something, get out of the neighborhood do something with myself.

McCullough was holding a list of the 30 schools holding orientation sessions in different classrooms. She had already applied to some.

McCULLOUGH: Most of my schools that I chose were for law or medical. And today I think I'm going to be looking at Community School for social justice, Bronx Leadership.

Signs were posted outside each classroom with the names of different schools. There was the Celia Cruz school of music; an aerospace academy. Another for careers in sports. The head of the Astor Collegiate Academy laid down the rules for his school.

PRINCIPAL: We're an academically challenging program. What does that mean? Your child will get homework every night. They're going to be expected to be studying every night.

Most of the schools opened a couple of years ago within existing high schools that are low performing. Peter Steinberg, who runs the office of small schools in Region 2 of the Bronx, says they're already successful.

STEINBERG: They have a record of more than 90% attendance, almost every student moves from 9th to 10th grade.

Steinberg says the schools are working because of their intimate settings. Most begin with just 80 to 100 ninth graders. Down the hall, a teacher from the Community School for Social Justice explained his school's approach to learning.

TEACHER: It's really hands on. In science class they're actually raising trout. They got trout eggs in the fall and they're raising the trout and they hatched and they're now small fries.

The orientation sessions were quick. Just 10 to 15 minutes. But getting in was tough because of the long lines, which were managed by school security agents.

GUARD: I need 2 lines on this side of the hallway, two lines. I don't need 3 and I don't need 4 I need two lines!

The Department of Education says 9000 people attended the small school fair last Saturday. Officials expect 30 thousand applications for about 4000 seats in a lottery system where students are allowed to pick up to 12 schools and rank them. With those numbers, clearly the vast majority won't get into a small school. But the Chancellor's senior advisor for education policy, Michele Cahill, says the city is working as fast as it can to open about 40 more small middle and high schools around the city.

CAHILL: This is a very aggressive strategy. At the same time we have only a certain amount of money and we have only a certain amount of space.

Already, the small schools are being blamed for contributing to overcrowding in the regular high schools - though the city says that's also because of growing 9th grade enrollment. With tens of millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation and other groups the city is hoping to create more schools while improving the larger schools that are working. It's an experiment parents and students evidently support. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.