A Last-Chance High School in Harlem Goes High Tech to Stave Off Closure

A Last-Chance High School in Harlem Goes High Tech to Stave Off Closure

December 29, 2011 6:37am | By Jon Schuppe, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

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HARLEM — Harlem Renaissance High School is a place of last resort.

It is filled with kids just out of jail, teenage mothers, immigrants who can barely speak English, special ed students and bright kids who have given up on themselves. They are clinging to the bottom rung of the public education system, and there aren’t many places for them to fall.

Now their school is fighting for survival, too.

Harlem Renaissance, Upper Manhattan’s only “transfer school” for students in danger of aging out of the system, has spent a year on the state Department of Education’s list of “persistently low-performing” schools that should be closed.

A neighborhood outcry and some frantic string-pulling by its inventive rookie principal staved off an immediate shutdown, and the school’s dismal graduation rate has since improved enough to earn a better grade from city education officials.

But Harlem Renaissance remains in limbo.

One bad fight or another failed inspection, and it could disappear from East 128th Street.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111229/harlem/lastchance-high-school-harlem-goes-high-tech-stave-off-closure?utm_content=chiefcharley472%40gmail.com&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=A%20Last-Chance%20High%20School%20in%20Harlem%20Goes%20High%20Tech%20to%20Stave%20Off%20Closure&utm_campaign=A%20Last-Chance%20High%20School%20in%20Harlem%20Goes%20High%20Tech%20to%20Stave%20Off%20Closurecontent#ixzz1hxtdNoSM