Farm School (for full article click on link)
When Ben Shuldiner started the High School for Public Service in 2003, he had a heinous track record to fix. The Crown Heights high school was once part of Wingate High, where Marty Markowitz graduated, and where the graduation rate was only 23% in 2000. To fix its failing marks, the city transformed Wingate into four smaller schools, and now Shuldiner’s students are flourishing. His school had a graduation rate of 97% last year, and U.S. News and World Report has ranked it among the country’s top schools two years in a row.
The principal’s secret is simple. “When kids start to feel needed and feel like they’re doing important and good work, they start to really care about themselves,” says Shuldiner.
