John Dewey High School

John Dewey High School
Established	1969
Type	Public
Principal	Barry M. Fried
Students	3,289
Grades	9-12
Location	50 Avenue X, 11223-5737, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Coordinates	40°37′15″N 73°57′33″W
Newspaper	The Dewey Classic
Website	www.johndeweyhighschool.org

John Dewey High School from the front view.

John Dewey High School, commonly referred to as JDHS or just Dewey is a public school in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, founded and based on the educational principles of John Dewey. It opened in the Fall of 1969 and is located at 50 Avenue X at the Gravesend/Bensonhurst-Bath Beach border of Brooklyn. The school was also named a New American High School in 2000. The school is under the banner of the New York City Department of Education.

It was established in 1969 and started out with only freshmen and sophomores. Gradually, the school grew to include juniors and seniors. Today, there are over 3,200 students are enrolled in the school. It counts among its alumni producer and director Larry Charles, filmmaker Spike Lee, New York rock and comedy club owner (Luna Lounge) Rob Sacher, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies, WWE wrestler Jayson Paul (aka JTG), scientist Robert Sapolsky, and news correspondent Ray Suarez.

Graduation requirements

In order to graduate from John Dewey High School, each student must take a certain amount of specific classes. For example, each student must take 16 cycles of English; 8 literature classes, 4 writing classes, 2 communication classes, and 2 elective classes. For Social Studies, each student must take 16 cycles of classes. Students need 8 Global courses, 4 American History, 2 Economic classes, and 2 Participation in Government classes. Mathematics requires 12 cycles, each student must complete 3 years of math, and must complete Math A. The Science Department requires students to take 12 cycles of Science. John Dewey High School also offers many foreign languages such as Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Russian and French. When a student chooses his or her preferred languages, they must take the course either for 1 year (4 cycles) or for 3 years (12 cycles).

Art and Music are important in the Dewey curriculum, a student can take photography, music, or film classes. There are also many electives and extra curricular activities in which are useful for college. John Dewey High School has been accredited for being a college-like high school. Each student must take 2 cycles of each. Also, like in every high school, John Dewey offers health education and physical education. Each student must take 14 cycles of physical ed. and 2 cycles of health; totaling up to 16 cycles (4 years). John Dewey High School offers many electives. A student may want to take Dance classes, or Business Education classes. It also offers Technology, Home Economics, Health Careers and Occupations. There is also a COOP program that senior students can be a part of. This program allows the students to be in the corporate world. They work one week and go to school the next.

Advanced Placement Courses

John Dewey High School offers around 15 Advanced Placement courses. Newsweek has named John Dewey High School one of the Top 6% America's Best High Schools for its Advanced Placement courses calling them "college-level". John Dewey High offers Advanced Placement courses in

• AP Biology
• AP Calculus AB
• AP Calculus BC
• AP Chemistry
• AP Computer Science A
• AP English Literature
• AP Art History
• AP Physics B
• AP Microeconomics
• AP Macroeconomics
• AP Psychology
• AP Spanish
• AP Statistics
• AP United States History
• AP World History

Resource Centers and Library

John Dewey High School offers Dewey learning centers called "Resource Centers". These are rooms located around the school specializing on every subject, each band (period) there are teachers there. The resource centers are an optional free time activity. There are resource centers for Math, Science, English and Literature, Foreign Language, Social Studies, Music, Art and a Universal Resource Center in which students can go to if they are free and have no classes in which they can go socialize.

John Dewey High also has a school library for the school community, with a collections of over 30,000 books, magazines, and about 12 computers for student, parent and faculty use.

Film Awards

In 2010, John Dewey High School's short film produced by the Film Class titled "A Block From Home" which was about an innocent victim who was caught in the cross fire gun violence with nearby Sheepshead Bay High School and takes on the progressive healing and the will to forge ahead. It was a part of the Tribeca Film Festival in the Our City My Story event.

Clubs and Annual Events

John Dewey High School offers clubs, such as: Anime, Asian, Art-Ink, Christian Culture, Ceramics, Classic Rock, Chess, Dance, Diversity, Fashion Design, Finance, Key Club, Hebrew Culture, Robotics Team, Math, Marine Science, Muslim Culture, Modeling, Model Congress, Sci-Fi, Gay-Straight Alliance and Soccer.

Each year there are annual events throughout the campus and the school, such as the Octoberfest, Multicultural Show, Fashion Show, Clash of the Genres (in which different music genres compete), Country Fair (where all over the school games are played, inflatable balloons, caricatures etc. also involving music and food, sports and fundraising), Field Day, Spirit Week, Blood Drive (students 16 or older have the option to donate blood to those in need) and the Dewey or Don't We? talent show.

Race and Ethnicity

Ethnic Group	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Asian or Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	32.7%	32.9%	33.4%
Black or African American	30.5%	29.9%	30.6%
White	17.3%	16.1%	14.6%
Hispanic or Latino	19.3%	20.8%	20.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native	0.3%	0.2%	0.5%

Academy of Finance

John Dewey High School houses the "first" Academy of Finance, which was started by Sandy Weill in 1982. The Academy of Finance prepares students for post-secondary education and careers through a theme-based, contextualized curriculum approach.

The Academy of Finance introduces high school students to the broad career opportunities of the financial services industry. One of three member programs of the National Academy Foundation, the Academy of Finance operates as a small learning community and is located in more than 275 high schools nationwide.

At John Dewey, each student is allowed to apply for the Academy of Finance. During the Sophomore year, a student who is interested in joining the Academy, gives in his or her application and waits for an interview with Academy coordinator. The Academy of Finance is only available to Juniors and Seniors who applies during their Sophomore year.

ARISTA

ARISTA is the scholastic honor society of John Dewey High School. Applicants must have achieved an overall scholastic average of 90 or above as a student at John Dewey High School. The student must also have a record of service performed each cycle in some facility in the school. In the early decades of operation, the school offered students no letter or number grades, and there was no school-wide academic honor society.

Sports

From its founding John Dewey has not fielded varsity sports teams. That lack of inter-school sports competition grew out of its educational design, meant to de-emphasize competition, winning and losing, and to encourage achievement for its own sake. The school does however have intramural athletic programs which students can take advantage of to play sports for recreation.

However, starting in the 2011-2012 school year, competitive sports with other public high schools are beginning due to a majority vote towards it. It starts with a male and female soccer team and a female basketball team, cross country, and as well as cheer-leading due to the new arrival of sports. The title for the sport teams in John Dewey are named The Dewey Dragons.

Trivia

• The school is shown during the chase scene of the Academy Award winning movie The French Connection.
• The Bay 50th Street train station is right in front of the school's campus, and is part of the Adopt-a-Station program.

Notable alumni

The statue in front of John Dewey High School at campus.

• Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Imam @ Dar-Ul Hijrah
• Mike Abrams, Sr. Director, Sirius XM Satellite Radio*Foxy Brown, musical artist
• Margaret Chan, New York City Civil Court Judge
• Larry Charles, television/film writer, director, producer
• Gregory Crewdson, modern artist/photographer
• David Brody (Comedy Writer and Radio Producer) for Z100 NY
• Elvis Duran (Elvis Duran and the Morning Show)
• Eric Francis, investigative reporter and astrologer
• Elliot Goldenthal, composer
• Robert Sapolsky, scientist
• Arthur Lander, biologist
• Spike Lee Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
• Doris Ling-Cohan, New York State Supreme Court Justice
• Michael Mandel, Chief Economist, BusinessWeek Magazine
• Donald Margulies, playwright
• Angie Martinez, radio personality
• John Ortiz, actor
• Geoffrey Owens, actor
• Colin Quinn, comedian and television personality
• Jayson Paul, professional wrestler
• Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., New York City Council member
• Ray Suarez, journalist and author
• Michelle Ye, actress

External links

• Official website
• John Dewey High School - Official Photography Website
• John Dewey High School - Computer Mac Lab Official Website
• John Dewey High School 40th reunion site. June 12, 2010 on campus
• John Dewey High School NYCDOE Page
• John Dewey High School alumni website
• 2011 NYC Learning Survey
• 2010 NYC Progress Report
• John Dewey High School's Library Website