Future Leaders Institute Charter School

Harlem Children - The Need

Harlem desperately needs high-expectation learning communities with the ability to educate students from homes, schools and environments where education has been historically neglected. Located in District 3, FLI strives to be one of the leading high-performing, non-selective schools in Harlem-a place that fully prepares students for outstanding high schools and colleges.

 

FLI works with children and families in Harlem who face the largest inadequacies and inequalities found within the public education system. It serves a student population with little access to quality educational opportunities. In Harlem, less than 40% of students read at grade level and 70% will not graduate from high school in four years. Several of FLI's students previously attended schools that were performing so poorly that they were shut down, and many others have come from some of the lowest performing schools in the City.

Over 99 percent of FLI's 335 students are children of color (96 percent African-American). Approximately 75 percent of the students' families receive public assistance and/or qualify for free and reduced meals at school. Informal assessment of FLI families indicates that the overwhelming majority of our students will be the first to attend and graduate from a four-year college or university. The majority of FLI's students come from the local neighborhood. However, some students travel from other areas of the City because of the lack of educational opportunities in their own neighborhoods.