In September 2002, CASES opened the Community Prep High School, an innovative collaboration with NYC Department of Education and the City University of New York (CUNY). The partners have planned the School with funding from a consortium of funders - the Carnegie Corporation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Open Society Institute-as part of the New Century High Schools Initiative.

The mission of the Prep School, a transitional, school-readiness academy, is to improve the academic and social skills of some of our City's lowest performing and most vulnerable students. The Prep School is a rigorous model literacy and student engagement program, targeting students who read significantly below grade level. The three partners together teach students both the academic and social skills they need to move on to - and succeed in - their next school, or vocational program, or employment setting. The Prep School fills a gap in current educational services in New York City by creating a bridge between incarceration and liberty for youth making the transition from custodial to community schools. The U.S. Dept. of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recommends transitional schools because these schools prepare youth for return to mainstream classrooms, increase access to needed services, and have documented success at improving youth outcomes. The School will be the first of its kind in New York City, and one of a very few in the country attempting such an effort.

The School aims to nurture both the learner and the citizen in every young person. The Prep School views students' life experience as an asset-the raw material for developing critical and moral thinking skills. Our students' experience with the justice system, which might be a stigma elsewhere, instead serves as the subject matter for academic instruction and as the foundation for social skills development and community engagement.

Community Prep High School spurs system-wide school reform. The School's innovative design is a model for governance, curriculum, instruction and staff development throughout the City. We share the lessons we learn with other schools in the district, including those in custodial settings, several that serve low literacy students, students who have been suspended, and students having difficulty moving from middle to high school. The School also triggers reform by opening up other schools' doors to our students. The School demonstrates the strength of a true collaboration, as three institutions bring resources and expertise to create the School, which is run by co-directors from the Department and CASES.