WHAT'S GOING ON NOW:

RISING STAR PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL

Growing in Leaps and Bounds
Though younger than its students, Tompkins Square is making its mark

Start with a diverse and motivated student body. Add an enthusiastic and gifted faculty, committed parents, a visionary principal and a progressive curriculum, and you’ll have the recipe for success at Tompkins Square Middle School.

Founded in 2001, the school began with a handful of teachers and 70 students, and has since grown to about 350 students with 25 faculty members. Last year, a sixth grade class was added. Tompkins Square is a progressive school, with an emphasis on mutual respect between student and faculty, ethnic diversity, creating a nurturing and creative learning environment, and a focus not only on what is learned, but how it is learned.

“Middle school is a big period of transition in kids’ lives, and selfidentity is huge,” said Mark Pingitore, who has been the principal since the school’s inception, and prides himself on the outstanding quality of the faculty as one of its key distinguishing factors. “We want to provide students with a safe and yet rigorous learning environment. We also believe in giving students the time they need to learn,” he said. “Getting them actively involved in their education is the key to keeping them enthusiastic. They won’t just study the Civil War, for example, but they’ll be assigned a novel on the Civil War as well.”

This rigorous environment is reflected in an unusual curriculum consisting of nine-week blocks, or modules, in which students study humanities, math and science, and enrichment classes like Spanish, technology, physical education or art. There is also an advisory program, in which small groups of students, led by a faculty member, are encouraged to talk about a variety of topics beyond the classroom. The program makes social and emotional learning go hand in hand with academics.

Tompkins Square eschews traditional grades in favor of a pass/fail structure (pass, high pass, fail or pass with distinction, for example). The school also emphasizes participatory academics by involving students in role playing and live scenarios to make learning real. To culminate a semester-long study of the Constitution, for example, students visited the Manhattan Supreme Court and role-played as justices and lawyers.

“This reenactment gives students a real life application of the judicial system,” said Adam Weinstock, a four-year veteran of Tompkins and a seventh grade humanities instructor. “They really enjoy it, and the results are tremendous.”

The school also puts on a poetry event at the Nuyorican Café.

“This gives the students a unique opportunity to discover their voices and learn the power of self-expression,” Weinstock said.

A strong believer that students learn from each other, Pingitore stresses the importance of diversity, and this is reflected in the student body, which is approximately 40 percent Latino, 20 percent Caucasian, 20 percent African- American and 20 percent Asian. There is also a mix of low income and middle class kids, as well as students with a range of academic skills.

With class size in the high 20s, and students working often in groups or pairs on projects,Tompkins Square places a distinct emphasis on community and lays a strong foundation for close attention. Facilities for the school, which occupies the third floor of a building that also houses the Earth School and P.S. 64, include two outdoor playgrounds, a shared gymnasium, cafeteria and a new computer lab that will launch next fall thanks to a $500,000 grant from the city. There is also a thriving after-school program focusing on athletics and the arts, a partnership program with NYU, and visiting faculty from Teachers College at Columbia University who observe classes and techniques.

Tompkins Square students go on to high schools such as La Guardia, The School of the Future, Baruch, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.

Where are the parents in all this? They are the guiding force, as they should be. “Parents helped start the school through grassroots organizing before the city,” Pingitore said. “They petitioned for the school, and got it within a year.”

The forces that drive this school’s success—from parents to administrators to teachers—may be diverse, but they work because they all have one goal in mind.

“We want,” Pingitore said, “to give students the tools they need to prepare for high school and beyond.”

- Caroline Jaffe-Pickett