Windows Academy, Windows into Improved Attendance

Luis Torres • Cahn Fellow 2019

This paper details the work of transforming Community School 55 in The Bronx into a school that celebrates the richness of The Bronx by integrating HipHop into its academics and overall school culture. By incorporating HipHop into our school through academics and activities, we aim to increase student attendance and engagement in our school community.

Furthermore, in this paper, we investigate the initial findings from discussions with students, staff, and community members regarding our intent to revamp our school towards a HipHop focus. Overall, our school community stakeholders were intrigued and supported the idea. Conversations occurred to provide clarity to those who did not understand the concept of HipHop or had adverse notions regarding HipHop. Though the coronavirus pandemic halted our efforts to continue our project for a period of time, the methods, results, and future plans of our endeavor were documented before the pandemic actually affected our school community.