De Blasio Okays Second Batch of School Experiments

Dozens more schools will join an initiative by Mayor Bill de Blasio meant to encourage school-based innovations, such as staggering teacher work schedules to lengthen the school day or breaking class size rules to offer larger seminars in some settings and small-group instruction in others. 

The mayor and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced Tuesday that 64 schools will join the city's PROSE program, which stands for Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence, in addition to the 62 currently participating. The expansion brings the city closer to its goal of 200 PROSE schools. 

Schools submit applications to the Department of Education to propose new ways of zooming in on academic challenges that would require sidestepping multiple labor or work rules. Education officials said 119 schools applied this year.

"Teachers all over the city welcome the opportunity to do it their way, to work within the school community to figure out what makes sense for them," said de Blasio. He spoke at The Michael J. Petrides School on Staten Island, where he visited a combined chemistry and physics class. The school plans to combine classes next year as a PROSE school to better integrate subjects.

Fariña emphasized that a key part of the program is that school staff work collaboratively to propose new ideas in the classroom. The school's principal and at least 65 percent of teachers must approve the plan.

"For a long, long time were either mandates or sent down from the top -- do this and do it in a certain amount of time," said Fariña. "We're saying if we're going to make real change in New York City and the rest of this country, that everyone in the community has to buy-in."

The program is a result of a collaboration among the city, the teachers union and the principals union, hammered out in labor contract talks last year.

Because the proposals must get the majority of staff support, the program attracts schools with good track records of collaboration and low teacher turnover rates, though both high-performing and low-performing schools can apply. 

Still, the mayor touted the PROSE program as "reform on a grand scale" and an example of innovation that can happen with mayoral control of the city schools. He travels to Albany Wednesday to push his agenda on education and other issues with legislators.

Below is the department's list of schools selected: 

Bronx

The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology

International Community High School

Pablo Neruda Academy

Urban Assembly Academy of Civic Engagement

Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science

Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics

PS 274 The New American Academy at Roberto Clemente State Park

The Leadership and Community Service Academy

Bronx International High School

The Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice

Claremont International High School

Brooklyn

Urban Assembly Unison School

Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice

Academy of Arts and Letters

The Brooklyn Latin School

The Green School

The Upper Academy

PS 321 William Penn

Brooklyn Frontiers High School

Carroll Gardens School for Innovation

The Math and Science Exploratory School

Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice

PS 249 The Caton School

PS 770 New American Academy

Cultural Academy for the Arts and Sciences

Academy for Young Writers

Spring Creek Community School

Liberty Avenue Middle School

School of the Future

The Urban Assembly School for Collaborative Healthcare

International High School at Lafayette

Kingsborough Early College Secondary School

Origins High School

PS 446 Riverdale Avenue Community School

Riverdale Avenue Middle School

Manhattan

Bard High School Early College Manhattan

Tompkins Square Middle School

The Urban Assembly Maker Academy

Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction

NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies

Urban Assembly New York Harbor School

Lower Manhattan Community Middle School

Lower Manhattan Arts Academy

Urban Assembly Media High School

PS 112 Jose Celso Barbosa

Central Park East 1 Elementary School

Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts

The Urban Assembly Institute for New Technologies

Queens

Forest Elementary School

Bard High School Early College Queens

Voyages Preparatory High School

Business Technology Early College High School

Goldie Maple Academy

EPIC High School North

Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School

Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights

Benjamin Franklin High School for Finance and Information Technology

The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria

Hunter’s Point Community Middle School

Staten Island

Michael J. Petrides School

Concord High School