ABS Spotlight PS 359 LEAD

AMERICA'S BEST SCHOOLS SPOTLIGHT

PS 359, Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy, and Discovery (LEAD)

NY Community School District 7

Bronx, NY
Grades 3K-6
Principal: Dr. Alexa Sorden

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ENROLLMENT: 159

Latino/ Hispanic

66%

Black/ African American

29%

White

Students Meeting Low-income Criteria

87%

In 2020, PS 359 (then named Concourse Village Elementary) won the America’s Best School Award. In the years since, parents encouraged the New York City Department of Education to extend the school beyond elementary grades to create a powerful 3K through 6th grade experience. The school adopted an even more academically rigorous, STEM-based, career-connected curriculum, as they pursue International Baccalaureate Certification. Additionally, the school moved to a new facility and adopted a new name: Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy, and Discovery (LEAD).

While the enhancements have been significant, the elements that nurtured the school’s success have been maintained. The LEAD team continues to help all students see themselves as valued and respected leaders in their community and in the world. Meticulously, they reinforce a set of core values: Integrity, Perseverance, Optimism, Willingness, Empathy, and Respect (I-POWER) and help students see themselves as constructive change agents, citizens, and scholars who exhibit these core values every day.

An effective leadership team, built upon a departmentalized structure, has also influenced LEAD’s success. Teachers work in vertical teams where they acquire individual and collective expertise in either the humanities or STEM subjects, and develop well-articulated plans to ensure all students have a high likelihood of achieving or exceeding rigorous state standards at each grade level. Through the departmentalized structure, teachers also work together to create engaging lessons that help students gain, integrate, and apply important academic skills and then use those skills in ways that prepare students to change their communities and the world.

At LEAD, almost all students demonstrate proficiency in English language arts and math (surpassing schools in many affluent New York suburbs). Almost all parents rate the school as safe and effective. Almost all teachers return each year to contribute more to the school’s success.