- Edward R. Murrow High School, founded in 1974 by Saul Bruckner and named for the pioneering television newsman Edward R. Murrow, is located in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York City, New York and is part of the New York City Department of Education.
- Murrow was founded according to the pedagogical theories of John Dewey, and is known for its academic excellence as well as its laid-back atmosphere
- Murrow's second and current principal is Anthony R. Lodico who took over in 2004 after the retirement of Saul Bruckner, who had been principal since the school's creation and whose leadership was responsible for many of the school's accolades.
- Academics
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Murrow is consistently ranked one of the best high schools in the country, recognized by the Department of Education as a School of Excellence in 1989. [1] Westinghouse Talent Search, semi-finalists consistently since 1995, and the Virtual Enterprise program has been regarded as the best in the country, winning such honors as 1st place at the National Business Plan competition in 2005, 2007, and 2008. Murrow's We The People also recently emerged as the 2007 New York State Champions at We The People Competition in Schenectady, New York. The We the People team also placed in the top 21 and won a Unit 2 award at the 2007 National competition held in Washington D.C.
- Keeping in line with Dewey's theories on education, Murrow has an unusual schedule structure. Classes are divided into 4 9-week "cycles", rather than 2 semesters. The daily schedule shifts depending on the day of the week, with class length varying from 50 minutes to an hour, and each class meets only 4 times a week; there are no bells to mark off the time between classes, and no time explicitly scheduled in between. Rather than having a lunch period or study halls, Murrow students have free periods called "OPTA"s (Optional Time Activities), used for studying, eating, or relaxing.
- Murrow students are also permitted to take independent study courses called MILES, which stands for Murrow Independent Learning Experience. These are required courses that meet just once a week for 15 minutes to collect homework assignments. The grade is based on the final exam and a pass is credited as a 98 in the student GPA.
- Murrow has a number of unique features including:
- A letter grading system, with each letter corresponding to a numerical measurement, e.g. E=90-99, G=80-89, S=65-79, and No credit (N) for grades below 65, and MI for Mastery in Independent Study.
- In calculating the average, E is treated as a 95, G - 85, S - 75, and MI - 98. This means that for getting the highest grade in all classes, a student will not achieve an average higher than 95, unless she also takes MILES classes. In college admissions applications an explanatory letter is forwarded to colleges to explain this fact.
- Four "cycles"-each one approximately 40 days in length-during the course of a given year.
- Instead of using numbers to represent class periods, Murrow uses letters from A-J, excluding I.
- Edward R. Murrow High School is also known for its outstanding theater program. Their success in the arts was recognized by Mel Brooks, who granted the school to be the first ever to gain rights to the smash hit musical "The Producers" in Spring 2008.This Murrow production won a total of seven awards at the 3rd annual National Youth Theatre Ceremony- which is a traveling reviewing company that reviews high school productions around the nation.Including 2 awards for Male Lead Actor (Harrison Brian Fuchs, Nicholas Dylan Guastella), 2 awards for Male Supporting Actor (Benjamin Kriam, Matthew Ryan Hunter), 1 for Female Supporting Actor (Julie Reed), it also won Best Production and Best Ensemble; directed under Rory Schwartz.
- Student Demographics
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There are 3,985 students in the school. The demographics of the school are 35.16% White (non-Hispanic), 28.51% Black or African American, 21.38% Asian, 14.76% Hispanic or Latino and 0.2% Native American. The student/teacher ratio is 20.1.
- Chess
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Murrow's chess team, coached by Eliot Weiss, has won seven high-school national championships(including four straight from 2004-2007), 15 state championships (including ten in a row for the last ten years) and 16 NYC chess championships since 1990. On December 15, 2004, the Murrow Chess Team met privately with President Bush in the Oval Office, being congratulated on their achievements. In March 2007, Murrow and its chess team were the subject of Michael Weinreb's book A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High-School Chess Team. There are plans to produce a major motion picture based on the book, "The Kings of New York," which will open sometime in 2011.
- Notable alumni
- Darren Aronofsky, director
- Jean-Michel Basquiat, artist
- Yvette Clarke, US Congresswoman
- Marisa Tomei, actress
- Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys
- Lil' Mama, Rapper
- Brian Berrebbi, actor, writer The Andy Milonakis Show
- Jerry Colonna, Noted Internet Investor, Philanthropist
- Irina Krush, US Women's Chess Champion
- Alex Lenderman International Chess Master and 2005 World under 16 Champion
- Salvijus Bercys International Chess Master
- Jeffrey Alan Schechter screenwriter and producer
- Notable staff
- James Bohanek, Broadway and television actor
- Eliot Weiss, Chess coach and former goalie for the New Jersey Rockets semipro ice hockey team.
- External links
- Official site
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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