Societal values, ethics, self-worth, competition and group dynamics are an integral part of the school philosophy. The Academy has a different philosophy, and it is the key to the students' personal and intellectual transformation. It is all about caring and being cared about. We surround students with a benign conspiracy of adults and make it difficult for them to cut school, misbehave, or fail. As stipulated by the Board of Education, continued enrollment beyond the student's disciplinary period is voluntary.
Students can return to their old school in their old neighborhoods anytime.
The Academy had its first graduation in June, 1994. Click HERE for a JVL Evaluation Summary Notwithstanding their daily lives outside the Academy, which expose them to more temptations, risks, tragedies and difficulties than most of us see in a lifetime, our students' levels of achievement, measured by the classic standards of attendance, graduation rate, college enrollment, employment and RCT and SAT scores, far exceed the average results for New York's other alternative high schools. In many cases they exceed the NYC average for conventional public high schools too. Early on, Wildcat recognized, as our young people responded to the challenges presented to them, that the environment we created permitted us to raise the goals and academic standards for our students but also included an important continuing obligation to our graduates. Initially, eight Wagner School students were assigned to the Academy, working four hours per week as tutors and alumni mentors.