Established in Spring 1987 by Principal Nancy Mohr and colleagues, University Heights School is a locally and internationally recognized alternative school, a City University of New York Affiliated School on the campus of Bronx Community College, a member of the Center for Collaborative Education and the Coalition of Essential Schools, and an original partner school with the New York State Compact for learning. We are also in the Networks for School Renewal, a project funded by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. The 430 students at our school include secondary students of all ages with a variety of past school experiences. We share a philosophical commitment to being:

A Caring Community

We are committed to decency, respect, and trust. We avoid punishment and aim for fairness. We are a community of people who work together to resolve conflicts without violence. Students work together in Family Groups which not only manage their portfolios, but also address both individual issues and issues which arise in our school and in our society.

A Learning Community

We work in integrated learning teams. Together we define authentic learning, authentic assessment and mastery of our Domains and Habits of Learning.

• Working Together and Resolving Conflicts
• Taking Responsibility for Myself and My Community
• Critical Thinking and Ethical Decision Making
• Recognizing Patterns and Making Connections
• Communicating, Crafting, and Reflecting

A Diverse Community

We gain strength through our mullet- cultural, mullet-age, mullet-talented community and use that strength as a foundation of our curriculum which celebrates and values the differences within our school community and our global community. We all participate in decisions which affect us by building consensus together throughout our community.

A Collaborative Community

We collaborate with all members of our community, staff, students, families, the college, Board of Education and friends from the educational community as well. We work together to set standards and we value all voices and hold ourselves accountable by making our work public.

A Standard-Setting Community

All students move through a series of benchmarks and are graduated by a demonstration of habits, skills and knowledge in the five interdisciplinary portfolios, which are assessed by a variety of insiders and outsiders at Round-tables. The students must meet standards within three curricular areas within each Domain: 1) Math, science, technology, 2) Humanities, 3) Service and health. Students must also be in good standing.