Introduction

Visiting the College Now program at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx is a bit like spending a day with a big, bustling extended family. There is a lot of affection and joking, yet the clear message from the adults in the "family" is that they have high expectations for their "kids." As families go, College Now (CN) is very big. After two years, the program embraces approximately 300 ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-graders and will add another 100 ninth-graders each fall. Yet it retains that family feeling -- staff members and students are comfortable with each other. They hug, they tease, and they care, and that means that they do their best for each other.

So how did a high school of nearly 4,000 students achieve this sense of camaraderie and caring? It started in 1997 when the school divided its students into six houses to create smaller learning communities. Each house is staffed with an assistant principal, a house coordinator, counselors, house assistant, and family paraprofessional. This was clearly a first step to personalizing the environment, yet there still remained a concern about students slipping through the cracks.