{"id":3903,"date":"2026-03-25T06:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/?p=3903"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T17:01:54","slug":"advancing-high-school-innovation-in-nyc-public-schools-a-conversation-with-supervising-superintendent-dr-alan-cheng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/advancing-high-school-innovation-in-nyc-public-schools-a-conversation-with-supervising-superintendent-dr-alan-cheng\/","title":{"rendered":"Advancing High School Innovation in NYC Public Schools: A Conversation with Supervising Superintendent Dr. Alan Cheng"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Explore this Q&A with Dr. Alan Cheng, the new Supervising Superintendent for High Schools at New York City Public Schools. In this conversation, he explains how, as Superintendent, his team advanced deeper learning for students across 51 high schools in all five boroughs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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With nearly two decades of experience in New York City Public Schools, as a teacher, principal, deputy superintendent, and superintendent, Dr. Cheng has centered his leadership on strengthening instructional quality and expanding postsecondary pathways aligned with evolving graduation expectations, college, careers, and engaged civic life. In this Q&A, Dr. Cheng reflects on the opportunity to design high school learning environments that are rigorous, engaging and genuinely prepare students for success after graduation. He discusses how his district is building a culture of belonging, embedding project-based learning, participating in national conversations about the high school transcript, and aligning K\u201312 with higher education and workforce demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the Future of High School Network<\/a>, an effort uniting 24 systems across the country to build the evidence and implementation needed for a new architecture for high school, Dr. Cheng and his team help demonstrate what is possible when competency-based learning becomes embedded within large, diverse public systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What current conditions and demonstrations of demand lead you to believe that the moment for high school transformation is now?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent my entire career in New York City Public Schools, and I\u2019ve never been more hopeful than I am now. As a first-generation immigrant who arrived in this country not speaking English and not always feeling a sense of belonging, I\u2019ve long felt compelled to ask: What can we do to ensure that young people don\u2019t have that same experience in our schools?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is changing quickly. When we talk to employers\u2014from Mount Sinai Hospital to Chase, JetBlue, and faculty at CUNY and SUNY\u2014we hear a consistent message. Yes, students need strong content knowledge and literacy skills. But the premium today is on human skills: the ability to adapt, collaborate, communicate clearly, and work effectively with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the same skills named in New York State\u2019s Portrait of a Graduate. That framework provides clarity about what we should be working toward and ensures those competencies are not treated as \u201cextras.\u201d We have to design learning environments where those human skills are intentionally cultivated and assessed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future is already alive in many of our classrooms. The opportunity now is to continue aligning our broader ecosystem around what many classrooms are already demonstrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is unique about your district within New York City Public Schools?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n
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Just last week, I was in a high school science classroom in Queens. A group of students was preparing scientific experiments, sorting note cards in English, Spanish, and Bengali. An eleventh grader who had recently arrived in the country presented her research to a panel of community experts. She pulled up water quality results from samples she collected near an old landfill and walked the panel through her analysis. She listened carefully to their questions, paused, reconsidered her reasoning, revised her hypothesis in real time, and tried again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What struck me most was that this wasn\u2019t unusual. We see this level of engagement across our schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our district includes 51 high schools and more than 22,000 students. Every week, students participate in apprenticeships, learn outside the classroom, and complete portfolios to demonstrate mastery. They engage deeply with ideas and articulate their thinking publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see students interviewing neighbors about housing policy. We see multilingual learners building arguments across multiple languages. Many students learn Spanish because it has become the lingua franca in our schools\u2014even if it\u2019s not their home language. And all of this is happening within New York City Public Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did this become the norm for students in your district?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Our district is a network of mission-aligned schools. This didn\u2019t happen by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, this kind of learning existed in small, boutique settings. About twelve years ago, a group of school leaders came together to ensure this wouldn\u2019t be a \u201cthis too shall pass\u201d moment. Six strong networks aligned around a shared vision for deeper learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past seven years, I\u2019ve been a part of this work. We\u2019ve begun documenting and codifying the core practices that are now consistent across our schools. A few key components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n