Avenues World School, Manhattan Island, NYC - For Profit Independent School

Avenues World School, Manhattan Island, NYC

Background:

The Avenues World School is situated right in the heart of New York City on 10th Avenue. It is in an area of inner-city renewal and is located in an old factory that has been extensively remodelled. The building sits next to the Highline, an urban park/walkway which is a feature of the area.

It caters for students from 3 to 18 Years old. Being a ‘for profit’ independent school it has an annual tuition fee of $46 000 US (That's $690 000 for the 15 years you would be attending).

The Security and Lobby of the Avenues World School 

However, this is all inclusive and includes student’s devices, the expected travel, lunches, and all other school materials and expenses. The school currently has 1300 students from 3 year olds to 11th Graders. 

The Highline from the Avenues

The World School is a unique concept with the plan to open other World schools around the globe that students must attend at some stage in their time at the school in order to graduate. The school was close to opening it's second school in China and is also considering Miami, Brazil, and Spain. 

The schools are all about creating bi or multi lingual world citizens. 

What was Innovative:

The whole World School concept is very innovative. The idea that students can study a second language in a bilingual setting and then travel to a country to attend another World

             The Highline from the Avenues

School where their second language is the first language of that country, is amazing. It provides the student with an authentic immersion experience and to graduate from their school they have to do this. It sort of tops the French classes two weeks in New Caledonia!

Students in Spanish Emersion Class

The school is all about providing a quality bilingual education. The students are predominantly English speaking and on enrolment must choose either Mandarin or Spanish (the two most spoken languages in the world),  as a second language.  Some of the children have spoken a second language but for most this is new. From K (Year 0) the students begin their language. The language is not taught in isolation but is integrated into class programmes. One day a lesson is taught in English the next day the progression of that lesson is taught in the chosen second language - total immersion!  Teachers have language assistants in classes but all language teachers are totally bilingual. The school feels that as most students don't come from homes where a second language is spoken, to ensure the language develops, class lessons have to be in an immersion format. 

2nd Grade Students in Mandarin Immersion class.

Both ambitious and innovative, the school if successful will be setting these well connected students up for life. The school along with Harvard University is carrying out on-going research into how their immersion programme is effecting student achievement. As the school is only three years old the research is very much in its infancy so outcomes are inconclusive. 

The school curriculum was developed by a Harvard Professor and staying with the global view they have scoured the world for best practice to include in their curriculum. Mathematics at the Elementary level is Singapore Maths and at Middle and Secondary is Exeter Maths. I asked why they chose these programmes and my host, Abby Brody, (Head of the Lower School) replied, "Because they are the best."

ELearning was very important in the school. All students are given a device. From 3 Years to 6th grade they get an iPad and from 7th - 12th they are given a Macbook Air and an iPod. The devices belong to the students. The school is a 1:1 Apple Distinguished School.

Pod of Macbook Airs

As well as personal devices the school has an Innovation Lab in their Middle and Upper Schools and are looking at building one in their Lower School. These labs, like Colorado Academy have 3D printers, Laser Printers, wood and metal craft tools etc.

Innovation Lab

They also have a lot of visual digital display boards showing everything from kids work to daily notices. Abby shared some work on the wall and using an iPad and an augmented reality app we could see the process the students used to make their art works. Another class had poems students had written displayed on the wall, when you hovered the iPad over the top the augmented reality app showed videos of students talking about their art works.

Kristen Paino, their tech integrator, introduced me to the many amazing apps they use on IPad to bring the curriculum to life:

• Book Creator - Students can Collaborate together to make a book.
• Aurasma - Augmented Reality App
• Popplet - Food web
• Explain Everything - Well... it explains everything.
• Show B - sharing work with teacher
• Reflector - displaying work/ sharing

Other IT innovations include:

• Sedna - Scheduling system for display boards
• Mac Minis for classroom computers
• Class AV cameras for recording lessons (Appraisal) and for linking up with overseas World Schools.

The school has 2500 devices in the building! They are all leased and will be replaced every two to three years, depending on the device. 

The school curriculum dictates the topics of study and all classes and subject areas have the same theme so this can be reflected in the immersion classes. Arts and Music is also taught in both languages.

I got the feeling in the Lower School the curriculum was very much teacher directed but in the Middle and Upper schools students seemed to have greater ownership. The Middle school mastery programme allowed students to choose a passion area to pursue and then along with others collaboratively develop it into something they could showcase.

Upper School classes are taught using the Harkness method. Students work collaboratively around a round tabled area with no "front of the class." 

Harkness Learning Space

In the Lower School in a recent Self-expression unit, students could choose one area they covered (Dance, Storytelling, and visual Arts) and explore it at depth. The Arts is important to the school and the school always has an Artist in Residence. They also utilise the unique position of the school in the heart of NYC and visit galleries, have visits from world class dancers, performers and storytellers. 

In the Upper School students had participated in a Shark tank/ Dragons Den themed topic, where they pitched business ideas to a panel of local NYC business people and investors. This school is well positioned to utilise a large number of rich experiences in their community but it is something schools could do in most locations, maybe not to the same international degree. 

Abby said the staff work hard (most work 7am - 7pm) at Avenues and the immersion teaching is demanding but it is very well resourced. Staff are provided with excellent PD and there are many opportunities within the school including travel. They are encouraged to be innovative and try things out. 

Physically it is a well provisioned school. There are attractive and functional shared learning spaces on each floor. The Lower school has a well-equipped gym at their disposal on the 10th floor, while the middle and seniors use a nearby recreation centre. The cafeteria is beautifully set out and the food quality was excellent. 

Cafeteria at the Avenues

A performing area in the shared space in the Middle School

Another shared space that incorporates a library

The 10th floor gymnasium

Student workspace for Upper School.

My Reflections:

You could say it is amazing what money can buy (and it is) and certainly not many schools could afford to send their students overseas for long periods of time, but if you cut through all of that, what The Avenues World School is trying to achieve is amazing, ambitious and innovative. Whether it will work remains to be seen. I did witness a couple of young students both distressed and frustrated that they couldn't express what they wanted to say in the immersion class but I guess this is going to happen. The thing it emphasised to me is the importance of schools introducing a second language at primary level. We all know the benefits for students in terms of enhancing their knowledge of English through learning another language but aside from that, we are developing global citizens. To do this properly they need to be bilingual and preferably bilingual with an international language such as Mandarin or Spanish. The opportunity for language programmes are now available for schools through the new MOE funding and schools should take advantage of this. 

Augmented reality app brings students art work to life.

The Avenues is clearly well connected with local business and is in an ideal location, however, I think most schools could and should tap into their local resources/ businesses/ artists and performers more than we do. The artist in residence concept was very cool and although we probably couldn't achieve it as a single school, with maybe Arts Council funding and joining with other schools we could rotate an artist in residence around our schools. Our local experts in business and community services would be good sources of knowledge for students and they would provide relevant and authentic context for the student learning.

ELearning was visual in the school but was not dominant. It enhanced their learning landscape. Kirsten the Tech integrator works with students and teachers to assist them to find the right tool/ app for their learning. She also researches what would be good for the school. This role is a bit of luxury but has meant their capacity in IT is huge. Schools need to value the capacity of staff and also the importance eLearning has to bring the curriculum to life.

Implications for HSS:

It is great that Di has initiated Mandarin Language Learning programmes at HSS. In term three our language programme will begin with the help of a Mandarin Language Assistant. This is very exciting for the school and although not on the scale of the Avenues, it a positive start. It will be vital that as a school whatever we do is sustainable. We must also continue to partner with AsiaNZ to give opportunities for teachers and maybe students to visit schools outside NZ as this is a rich experience and supports the concept of global citizenship. 

Nelson has so many resources when it comes to business, the arts and sport. As a school we tap into these at times but I believe we could better utilise the skills and knowledge in our community. This would provide a relevant local context for our students. It may be we seek business partnerships to support particular programmes in the school or we invite an artist to work in our school for a period of time. One idea I had was to set up a class in a vacant shop in Trafalgar St and base the class programme around CBD life, integrating maths/ statistics/ Literacy etc into a weeklong project. We could rotate classes in at the end of each week. We could bring in speakers from local businesses, council etc to talk to the students and we could operate an "open" class so shoppers could see what happens in a modern classroom. 

We are extremely lucky with the level of skills and knowledge we have around eLearning in our school and how we have grown in our capacity overall has been staggering. Equally, after being at the Avenues it is amazing to see what we could achieve. We need to make sure we always remember that eLearning capacity is a journey and will never have a final destination.