The Internationals Network for Public Schools

Internationals Network for Public Schools is an educational nonprofit supporting 12 International high schools, serving newly arrived immigrants, in New York and California.

Mission

The mission of Internationals Network 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.

History

The International High School opened in 1985, a collaborative effort between the New York City Department of Education and LaGuardia Community College. The goal was to create a school to address the growing population of recent immigrant students in New York City with limited English proficiency. At this school, a unique educational model developed to integrate content and language instruction, project based learning, and student collaboration. In the early 1990s, two sister schools opened in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The three schools formed the International Schools Partnership to support the professional development needs of the three schools and promote the expansion of the model. In 2004, the partnership gained non-profit status and became Internationals Network for Public Schools. Since their inception, the Partnership and Network opened an additional 9 schools based upon the original model.[1] The Network was initially funded in large part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but the Network has since broadened its donor and grant base.

Awards and recognition

The Internationals Approach to teaching has been studied by researchers at Stanford University School Redesign Network and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Stanford study, led by Linda Darling-Hammond and her team of researchers, found "the Internationals Network for Public Schools (Internationals) is an important model that originated in New York City and has shown itself to be both successful and adaptable" in California.[2] Michelle Fine and a team of researchers from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that students at the three oldest International schools outperformed both English Language Learners and Native English Speakers (in New York City) in graduation rates and college going rates. The International schools also maintained lower drop out rates than ELL students and English only students.[3]

In 2009 the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) announced the four winners of its inaugural E Pluribus Unum national awards for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives. Internationals Network for Public Schools was named for its work teaching late-entry immigrant students.

Students

Today the network serves approximately 4,000 students annually from 90 countries. 86 percent of students come from low-income families. 15 percent of students have had interrupted formal education due to wars and/or lack of free education options in their native countries. 70 percent of students have been separated from one or both parents during their family's immigration to the United States.

Schools

*International High School at Lafayette

References

  1. ↑ Internationals Network History.
  2. ↑ Kessler, J. (2009). Oakland Unified School District case study: OIHS. Stanford, CA: School Redesign Network at Stanford University.
  3. ↑ Internationals Network for Public Schools: A Quantitative and Qualitative Cohort Analysis of Graduation and Dropout Rates byMichelle Fine at The Graduate Center, City University of New York June 2005.