Right in the middle of East Harlem, across the street from project housing, and inside a school that houses kids from Kindergarten to 12th grade, it’s hard to notice any differences in the students who pour in every morning and leave every evening other than their age. The outside may look like any other school for the local community, but a small section inside tells a different story.
The East Harlem Scholars Academy is a charter school located on 106th St. and Madison Avenue inside a larger school called the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex. You have to walk through several doors, encounter several students from other schools, and up 4 flights of stairs to get to it but the artwork in the staircase let you know you’re in the right place. The school first opened its doors to educate young children on August 29th 2012 with Cheyenne E. Batista Sao Rogue serving as the Head of the Charter school. Although NYC residents can apply through the application process, children from the school district have a better chance of being accepted.
The East Harlem Scholars Academy serves grades K-1 as part of the beginning phase and is now expecting to expand its space within Jackie Robinson to serve grades K-12 starting August 2013. The sister school will be called The East Harlem Scholars Academy II. E.H.S.A needs about 3 million dollars annually to cover expenses which is a number expected to increase pending their expansion. Charter schools and Public schools are repeatedly compared in regards to performance. A comparison showed NYC Charter school children perform better in English and Math in terms of meeting the standard. However, who attends these schools varies. The East Harlem Scholars Academy is still very new without much statistical evidence on performance but their initiative is to provide a learning environment that helps them succeed in higher education, help develop leadership skills, and promote a fun but challenging learning environment.
Due to the Charter school being new and placed into a building that already has another school that serves the same grades, people of interest to interview would be parents and/or faculty from the separate schools. If possible, the Head of The Charter School, Cheyenne E. Batista Sao Rogue, can be interviewed to get her thoughts on the expansion of the school and the goal they hope to achieve.
Here are a few links to articles I found from my Factiva search: (not much has been written on the school)
This is a sign indicating what SCHOLAR stands for
- This is the artwork with the name of the school right before you enter the 4th floor
- Here are a few children eagerly waiting for their parents to pick them up
Vignette: East Harlem Scholars Academy Information
The East Harlem Charter School is a brand new school that opened last August and has been around for less than a year. It is located in a community surrounded by several different types of institutions. There is an all girls school located an avenue away on Park Avenue, a private school across from that school, another public school 2 blocks up on Madison, another 2 blocks down the same avenue, and not to mention the school that houses it. There is a hearing on March 11th for them to expand their school to more grades which might take over the place of one of the current schools inside the building, either Central Park East I or Central Park East II. Are more of these new Charter Schools going to move into these other buildings and phase out other schools? Charter school education is compared to Public school education often. This Charter is new and its “progress” over long periods of time can’t be compared so there is a small sample size. Many of the students who attend were selected through a lottery at random for an equal opportunity but kids within that school district have a better chance of being accepted. Each classroom is named after a “big time” college such as Syracuse and contains about 25 kids with 2 instructors.
