About

The International High School at Lafayette is a small, alternative high school located in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Its mission is to assist its international population of students in developing their linguistic, intellectual, cultural, and collaborative abilities so that they may become active participants in today’s interdependent world.

School Facts and Student Demographics

School Leader: Jon Harriman
Founding Date: September 8, 2005
Enrollment: 385 students
Grades Served: 9 – 12
Free/Reduced Meals: 95%
Affiliations: Internationals Network for Public Schools
Ethnicities:

40% Latin American
22% Haitian
10% South Asian
10% Eastern European/Central Asian
7% West African
6% Arab
5% East Asian

We guide new learners of English through development of the linguistic, intellectual, cultural and collaborative skills necessary for academic, professional, and personal success.

• All students can and must be able to speak, read, and write in English proficiently in order to actively participate in an English-speaking society.
• Students’ native languages, cultures, and families are resources that enrich our diverse learning community.
• Language is most effectively developed within the context of rigorous, project-based, interdisciplinary curricula.
• Students and staff learn best when they collaborate in heterogeneous groups.
• Experiential learning activities, such as internships and service learning, provide students language rich opportunities for personal growth.
• Governance is a shared responsibility allowing all members of the learning community to help shape school policy.
• Students must examine and engage thoughtfully in the ethical and moral issues that arise when given choice in our democratic and pluralistic society.
• Everyone has different strengths and achieves at varying rates; thus multiple forms of assessment are necessary for staff and students to adequately demonstrate what they know and can do.
• Students achieve through high expectations coupled with high academic and affective support.
• The arts provide students new and creative forms of self-expression as well as another way of interpreting and constructing knowledge.