Christina Brown is the executive director of New Heights Academy Charter School, the largest independent charter school in Manhattan “that prepares students in Washington Heights, Inwood and Harlem (New York) to succeed in college and life.”
Established in 2006, it is the largest independent charter school in the borough.
Please share the programming and mission for New Heights Academy Charter School.
New Heights Academy Charter School supports students in grades five through 12. Our mission is to ensure that all our students are prepared to succeed in college and life. We work really hard from fifth grade to 12th grade to build a college preparatory program for students and to make sure they are well prepared and motivated once they graduate. For the last two years, we have had 100 percent college acceptance.
We have been able to determine that about 70 percent of our students persist once they attend college. POSSE provides them with full tuition, room and board and on-campus support for two years.
What is your professional background in education?
During my senior year in college, I started working in a local public school as a teaching assistant. From there, I became a full-time English teacher [then] a director of college placement. After that, I was a high school principal for five years. At that point, I moved into the executive level of leadership for the school.
Why did you become an educator?
It was very personal for me. My mom and dad moved into a community where our elementary school is great. The sent me to a pretty awesome parochial school. Hey did an amazing job of preparing me academically for college in terms of critical thinking and having advanced levels of math and science and lot of reading and writing. I was always academically challenged. People who I grew up with, be it family members and friends, did not have the same educational experience I had. When I got to college, so many people who came from the area where I grew up were dropping out. They couldn’t make it through the first semester. I felt brown and Black kids deserved something better. I hope that I have changed lives forever and have been impactful in the community. We have to take control of how our children are treated in out communities and I wanted to be a part of that movement.
What type of investments should parents make in their children?
Exposure to the Creator of all things, understanding I was born with a particular purpose that I had to fulfill and there were going to be challenges and there were going to be successes, it was going to be hard sometimes and I would be tough enough to deal with it. That was my foundation. I think just making good choices in terms of the schools that I attended and the places we worshiped and being involved [helped]. I sang a lot when I was growing up; I played basketball and softball. My mom did an amazing job of modeling elegance and class and helping me to understand that I am a representation of her, my dad and my siblings every time I leave my house. Her expectations were clear.
I think from a school’s perspective and how we create that in students, it’s having that same foundation. While it might not be about the Creator, it might not be about faith. It is about being a representation of your family and pillars of our schools and understanding that your purpose is far greater than what is happening in neighborhoods and schools.
