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Diversity and the Arts Are Focus for School Named After Legendary Musician

By Katie Honan | November 16, 2014 7:56pm
 Principal William Fahey, who has been at Louis Armstrong Middle School since 2009.
Principal William Fahey, who has been at Louis Armstrong Middle School since 2009.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

EAST ELMHURST — The Louis Armstrong Middle School was built in 1979 after a court-ordered mandate for integration — and that quest for diversity remains the focus for William Fahey, who became principal there in 2009.

It’s tied into the school’s mission, and the magnet school buses in students across the borough, from as far away as Laurelton and Far Rockaway, to the building at 32-02 Junction Boulevard.

The more than 1,600 students at I.S. 227 represent the cultural makeup of Queens, with a mix of backgrounds and standardized test scores.

“I can almost tell you what the demographics of Queens is going to be before the census data,” Fahey, 53, said.

While there’s an additional application to get in, students of all abilities are eligible, and admission is based on a lottery.

Students are attracted to the strong academics and the arts programs, which are offered in each grade, according to last year’s academic survey through the Department of Education

The arts are a big deal for Fahey, who had experience as a principal in a private school on Long Island, which he left to work as a teacher in city schools.

He began working as a special education teacher at a school in Manhattan after dealing with the loss of his mother, and he said the students “rejuvenated my spirit.”

But he itched to get back into administration, and in 2007 applied to the New York City Leadership Academy. He was accepted earlier than he expected but jumped back into the role of principal at Louis Armstrong with support from the program, which he said was excellent.

When he started at Louis Armstrong, the school didn’t have the same challenges as previous schools he worked with — but he still saw areas that could use growth.

DNAinfo New York spoke to him about the school’s art programs, expanded academics and Louis Armstrong’s legacy, which continues to shape the school’s culture.

What did you feel was your biggest challenge when you became principal here?

Our schools were fairly higher-performing, but I thought of what needed to be done to push it to a higher level. The school was established in the late '70s to work to end segregation, so that was the mission. That mission continues today — bringing a diverse group of students to educate them academically, emotionally, physically and socially.

Our belief is [that] we have to empower students to become lifelong learners, and truly engage them in the process — not just inside the classroom, but outside the classroom.

That’s the level I feel I did bring to the school, in working with teachers to create a more collaborative learning happening in their classrooms. It was happening in pockets, but ensuring that consistency across the school was what I did.

Also making sure all students in Louis Armstrong have the same educational opportunities.

We’re broken into three small learning communities, called houses ... Each of those five classes operates as a team. They work and share the same students. Though we’re a large school, we’re small. One of the things I noticed when I first came in this school, there wasn’t a true alignment among all the houses, even an alignment in terms of all the subject areas. We worked on that. 

With students coming from far away, how do you make sure that kids are given the same opportunities for arts and other extracurriculars?

Within our school day we’re very strong on the arts, which is something I was committed to making happen in the school. We increased the arts program to make sure all students coming to Louis Armstrong are exposed to music and art. That’s been a gradual progress, because of the reduction of funding, but I’m committed to making that happen.

Some of the ways to do that is to be creative in terms of scheduling, and also working in terms of all the coverage periods that teachers have to have built in. I’m trying that with the scheduling and making that a priority. A school’s priority is always represented in the schedules.

All of our children in grade five are exposed to both music and art, in grade six they’re all exposed to music and art. Grades seven and eight, students more or less declare an elective, where from grade five and six experiences they identify an area they want to “major” in. We have students who can take band, chorus or orchestra, and they have an opportunity for those. We also have a visual arts program, an arts program where students are working with ceramics and hands-on activities, then we have other students looking to go into a portfolio high school to major in art. When they reach grade eight they are placed in a portfolio class.

Last year we had nine students accepted to Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, which is an amazing number when you think of the students they let into their ninth grade.

Is Louis Armstrong the inspiration for the arts education here?

Louis Armstrong is known for his musical abilities, but we want to stress that it’s the arts  so even having the mural on the outside of the building shows our arts program and how it’s utilized. The chancellor has even recognized us for the great work we’re doing with art and music throughout the building. We’re considered one of the model schools to be used for other schools to look at.

Beyond diversity and the arts, how did you work to boost academics in the school when you started?

Knowing the Common Core was going to be happening, coming up with a plan to roll it out. Back in 2009-2010, we worked on a plan of the Common Core rollout. I started that for the implementation in the following school year, having assessed where everybody was, and I came up with a three-year plan.

They wound up rolling it out a year early, so we were well ahead. Were we perfect? No, but we were far ahead of other schools.