About Internationals
Our students come to us speaking little English; our graduates are prepared for college.
A highly successful network of 11 small public high schools operating on existing school campuses in New York City and Oakland, California, Internationals Network educates late-entry, overwhelmingly low-income children from more than 90 countries. Serving 3,500 students this year, most having arrived with limited English skills, Internationals Network sees 90 percent of its graduates go on to college – a remarkable result considering that the graduation rate for limited English proficient students in New York City stands at 23.5 percent. The first Internationals school, founded 25 years ago on a community college campus, generated a successful model and that was replicated three times prior to the incorporation of Internationals Network. Since the formation of the nonprofit in 2004, through the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the model has been re-created seven times in New York City and once in California, with a 12th school opening in San Francisco in August.
The inception of the Internationals Network for Public Schools can be traced to the creation of the first International High School, launched in 1985 as a collaborative effort between the New York City Department of Education and LaGuardia Community College to address the growing population of recent immigrant students in New York City with limited English language proficiency. As the innovative pedagogical model began to take shape, student academic performance and achievement grew, as did interest in the development and replication of the Internationals model.
In 1993, eight years after the opening of the original International High School, a second International High School opened in Manhattan, and a third school in Brooklyn soon followed in 1994. Building upon the growing success of the school model and the desire to reach more recent immigrant ELL students, the leadership of the three International High Schools agreed to form a partnership to facilitate inter-school collaboration, called the International Schools Partnership. A fourth school, Bronx International High School, opened in 2001. The formal non-profit Internationals Network for Public Schools was officially created in 2004 with a generous grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build on the 20-year history of development and success by formalizing the network among the existing schools and developing more International High Schools.
The unique and innovative pedagogical approach utilizes a youth development model as the core of its instructional approach. The Internationals Approach builds on the diverse strengths of each student, and actively engages students in leading their own learning activities in small groups. Schools form close-knit, supportive communities for students who may feel displaced after moving from another country and are unfamiliar with American language and culture. Differences among students are cherished and nurtured as they are continually encouraged to celebrate their cultural and linguistic individuality. Our classes are completely heterogeneous where students of different academic and literacy levels, and often different grades work together on projects in non-leveled small groups.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide quality education for recently arrived immigrants by growing and sustaining a strong national network of innovative International High Schools, while broadening our impact by sharing proven best practices and influencing policy for English learners on a national scale.
Major Programs of Internationals NetworkInternationals Network for Public Schools provides schools with the necessary supports, both organizational, educational and financial, to ensure that the remarkable success of our first three schools, documented in a recent research study, is maintained and mirrored in the newer schools in our network. Internationals Network works to support and network its schools to ensure that the quality in each school remains strong, even as we have more than doubled the number of International High Schools in New York City. The types of support that Internationals Network provides to network schools during each phase can be grouped into the following eight Services to Schools:
•Leadership Development•Professional Development
•I-START- an urban teacher residency, alternative certification model
•Curriculum Development
•College Readiness
•New School Development
•Model Adaption
•Advocacy and External Relations
The programs are the result of an actively collaborative dialogue among Internationals principals. Activities with each International High School change as a school moves through a life cycle, as schools develop more internal capacity and relationships. Internationals Network regularly evaluates its activities with schools in order to continue to provide valuable and needed resources to school principals and teachers.
50 Broadway, Suite 2200
New York, NY 10004
| General phone number: | (212) 868-5180 |
| Fax: | (212) 868-5188 |
| Name | Title | Staff Contact Information |
|---|---|---|
| Jessica Lee | Academic Affairs Associate | jessica.lee@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5186 |
| Janine Martyr | Associate, Finance & Operations | janine.martyr@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5184 |
| Sharon Lungrin | Director of Business Operations | sharon.lungrin@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5184 |
| Camille Rodriguez | Director of New School Development | camille.rodriguez@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5185 |
| Claire E. Sylvan | Executive Director | claire.sylvan@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5182 |
| Suzanne Timmer | Director of Development | suzanne.timmer@internationalsnps.org (212) 269-2389 |
| Thomas Thomson | Executive Assistant | thomas.thomson@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5180 |
| Daria Witt | Director of Academic Affairs | daria.witt@internationalsnps.org (212) 868-5187 |