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One Man's Continuing War against Recentralization: A Long Struggle for School Autonomy

The battle to find a bureaucracy-free zone, where educators are free to make important academic decisions at the levels closest to the students, will continue, Mr. Schmerler maintains. And Eric Nadelstern will be at - or somewhere near -the front in that battle. ERIC Nadelstern is an intensely practical man among the romantics and idealists of the small-schools movement. He is also passionately committed to a fair shake for the poor immigrant students he serves and to the transformational powers of performance assessment - for schools as well as for students. Nadelstern is the founding principal of International High School in Queens, New York City, which enrolls students from more than 40 countries. Many speak no English when they arrive, and International has targeted those with insufficient command of English. A majority of its students also come from poverty-level homes. Yet International's dropout rate has been as low as 1% and its college attendance rate as high as 96%; its achievement compares favorably to that of the top New York high schools. At the beginning of the 21st century, both Nadelstern's abundant administrative skills and his patience with city and state bureaucracies that had, up to this time, allowed him to carve an independent, creative path for his school were being sorely tested. Nadelstern stands out even among his peers in the vibrant New York City small-schools scene for the extent to which he has actively searched for, and worked tirelessly to create, a policy-friendly environment for International. A teacher of English as a second language for 15 years within the traditional school system - and a skillful insider - Nadelstern saw his chance to do more for his underserved students within the board of education's Alternative Schools Division. Thus he founded International in 1985. Despite its alternative status, the school began traditionally, with an eight-period day, 40-minute periods, and teachers in the front, as Nadelstern tells it. But it didn't take long before Nadelstern and his carefully chosen staff recognized the need for new approaches. They lengthened class time, increased participation and interdisciplinary work, and instituted peer review among the staff. Most significantly, they worked at developing sophisticated systems of performance assessment for students. The school rose to respected status within the alternative and small-schools communities, spawning new international high schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn that adopted many of International's methods. International and other successful small schools found a congenial climate in the city for much of the 1990s. The small number of such schools allowed them to vary their approaches without seriously threatening the larger system. They had the support of a strong, innovative chancellor, Joseph Fernandez, and his successor, Ramon Cortines. They were also helped by the like-minded organizational growth of reform networks such as the Center for Collaborative Education and New Visions for Public Schools, supported by Annenberg funding. But the climate began to change - slowly at first, then more dramatically with the appointment of Rudy Crew as chancellor, a more conservative turn in city and state politics, and, especially, the powerful new hold taken by "standards" and high-stakes testing. By the late 1990s, there were several hundred "small schools" in New York City (the New York Networks for School Renewal, a reform network, counted more than 140 schools among its members alone), and the variances and variations were an increasing challenge to the larger system. No longer could these assorted exceptions to the rule remain virtually invisible. Nadelstern and his peers felt increasingly intense pressure toward centralization and standardization and began to worry about holding on to even the most basic elements of their individuality. Simultaneously, the exploding charter school movement landed in New York. …