Bouncing her six-month-old son on her lap, Taylor Samuels laughed as she recalled her freshman year in high school. Her mom came to school one day to follow her from class to class, writing down her homework assignments and making sure her daughter was behaving.
As a freshman, Samuels (center in photo) sat in class, mortified, while her mother frowned at her from the hallway.
That’s a world away from where she is now, as a senior about to graduate from New Haven Academy Thursday night, looking forward to beginning a Rhode Island Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree program in the fall, and continuing to juggle her roles as a student and mother.
Samuels is one of 26 seniors graduating tonight from New Haven Academy, the city’s smallest high school. It will be only the third graduation exercise for the the young inter-district magnet school. The small school thinks big in preparing students, from day one, to advance to college.
At 8:30 a.m. Monday, accompanied by the rhythms of live African drumming, the senior class marched into the central hallway at New Haven Academy’s temporary school building on Leeder Hill Drive. With only three days until Thursday night’s graduation, the seniors were working on timing their entrances properly and learning where to move and stop to receive their diplomas and accolades.
“Will the class of 2009 please stand?” said Principal Greg Baldwin, bringing the students to their feet in unison.
A few minutes later, as the students filtered out, several New Haven Academy seniors stayed back to reflect on their time at New Haven Academy.
They value the school’s small size. With a maximum class size of 20 students, New Haven Academy fosters close relationships between students and teachers. The faculty is mostly young, which makes them very approachable, said senior Caprice Taylor (at right in photo), who is headed to the University of Bridgeport.
“They’re so down to earth,” she said.
Samuels agreed, mentioning a math teacher who “doesn’t give you any b.s.”
The smallness also creates tight bonds between the students. “We all treat each other like family,” said Francisco Del Carpio (second from right in photo). He’s going to Gateway Community College in the fall.
Teachers at New Haven Academy create close relationships with parents, too — to the dismay of some of the students. Taylor said that teachers are in constant email and phone contact with parents, to the point where her mother knows about her behavior and test scores before she even gets out of class.
“She knows before I know!” Taylor said incredulously as her classmates laughed knowingly.
Samuels added that misbehaving students have been known to get text messages in class from their parents, saying “We’re talking when you get home.”
The personal attention paid off for Samuels. Her mom may have followed her around one day in freshman year, but now Samuels has been accepted to Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I. She plans to major in criminal justice and minor in psychology while working towards Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at the same time.
“I want to be a forensic psychologist,” Samuels said. Following in the footsteps of her state trooper father, she wants to track down criminals by being able to “predict their next move,” like Dr. Henry Lee.
“I like doing puzzles,” Samuels said. “And I like the human brain.”
The 17-year-old was undaunted by the prospect of caring for her six-month-old while going to school full time. She plans to live off-campus and find child care for her son while she’s in class. After all, having Christopher didn’t stop her from graduating from high school on time. She took a month off from school after he was born in December, then came back and caught up on all her work.
Projects
Asked about what makes New Haven Academy special, the seniors immediately started listing all the different projects that they have to complete in order to graduate. There’s the big math test that covers mortgage financing and insurance rates, said Abraham Diaz (at left in top photo). Then there’s the 15-page thesis paper for history, said Hayley Torres.
There’s also the 11th grade internship, which requires students to work for three weeks in a field of their choice. Half of these internships lead to jobs, said Del Carpio, whose internship was at the Svigals and Partners architecture firm.
Don’t forget the 10-page analytical thesis paper for English, said Taylor. “And our senior social action project,” said Samuels. Seniors are required to design and implement an independent project that deals with an issue affecting a local community.
Baldwin (pictured), who founded the school with his wife, school Program Director Meredith Gavrin, called this “project-based learning.” He said it can be challenging for students who are used to getting good grades by cramming on the nights before tests.
As the senior meeting broke up, Baldwin walked through the hallway. He bumped fists with a student in the hall and put his hand on another student’s shoulder. “You take your test yet?” Baldwin asked as he walked by.
Retention Lags
For the third year in a row, 100 percent of graduating seniors have been accepted into a two- or four-year college. Behind the class of 2009’s admirable 100 percent college acceptance rate is a less impressive statistic: The 26 graduating seniors represent only just over 50 percent of the freshmen who started at New Haven Academy in 2004. The completion rate is “lower than I’d like it to be,” Baldwin acknowledged. (Board of Education spokeswoman Michelle Wade said that citywide average completion rates are not available.)
It’s not that students drop out, Baldwin said, they transfer to other schools. When they leave, Baldwin explained, students often say, “It’s too hard.”
“We haven’t simply taken the highest achievers and kept them,” Baldwin said. “It’s really a cross section that have stayed.” Students are accepted into the school by a blind lottery, Baldwin said, and there is no screening for grades.
For some students, a small school with lots of projects is too intense, even if they are traditionally good students, Baldwin said. A small school also means fewer extracurricular activities, which can be a detractor for students. New Haven Academy is “not what sixth graders typically think of when they’re thinking of high school,” he said.
Often, the small size of New Haven Academy is more attractive to the parents than to prospective students, Baldwin said, which leads to conflict when students are enrolled against their wishes. Now, when he talks to students who are coming to New Haven Academy, the first thing he asks is if their parents signed them up.
The school’s retention rate is improving, Baldwin said. The class of 2010 is on track to graduate 70 percent of its incoming freshman, and 2011 will be around 80 percent, he predicted.
Baldwin said he hopes to continue to increase the percentage as the school moves to its new permanent home next year, the old Co-Op High School building at 444 Orange St. Enrollment will increase from 190 students to 250 next year, but the school will never have more than 320 students, Baldwin said.
Commencement for the class of 2009 will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at the Fair Haven School auditorium, at 164 Grand Avenue.
Congratulations to Greg, Meredith and the New Haven Academy class of 2009. We appreciate what you do to get our young people to the next level.