York Preparatory School

At York Prep, we offer individualized education to help every student explore their unique potential. We call this concept “Your York.” Exploring Your Child’s Potential with Individualized Education:

• Your York means that every class you take is adjusted to the level that will both challenge you and allow you to succeed. If that means creating a one-student class to teach math three years above grade-level standards, we will create that class.
• Your York means that if a student is struggling or requires advanced placement in more than one subject, the teachers have already met and are collaborating on how to get that student reach to his or her full potential.
• Your York means that if a student has a passion (whether it’s fencing, sports broadcasting, or robotics) and is willing to work at it, we will create opportunities for them to pursue their interest through individualized education. We will support them with the resources they need so that the only limit to what they can achieve will be their own drive and work ethic.

York’s community works because of its intellectual, economic, and ethnic diversity. No two students come in or leave exactly the same. The fact that every student from York goes to college, and that so many get into their top choice schools (recently including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Savannah College of Art and Design, and more) are results of our approach to individualized education. We are dedicated to making these years ones that our students treasure for the rest of their lives. Our alumni love to visit their old mentors and stay in touch with the friendships they forged in our halls.

We’ve built our community based on a fundamental principle. As our founder and headmaster of almost fifty years loves to say, “Character trumps Algebra.” While our curriculum is challenging and prepares our students to succeed academically in top schools, we prepare them to do much more than just earn good grades. We prepare them to be confident people of character.

York Preparatory School is a New York City independent school committed to guiding students in grades six through twelve to reach their maximum potential—intellectually, socially, and physically—and to prepare them for college and beyond. Compassionate educators creatively address the needs and interests of a diverse community, thereby appropriately supporting and challenging students as they progress through a traditional curriculum within a structured environment. York Prep encourages the development of lifelong learners who are responsible members of their community.

Every child wants to be successful. No child ever went off to his or her first day of school determined to be a failure. This simple truth, combined with an emphasis on excellence and challenge, is at the heart of my philosophy of education–that students want to succeed and that each student has a right to do so. At York Prep, every opportunity is made so that, if they work, students can realize their unique talents and succeed.

We have been around long enough for us to be able to say that we stand for character values in a traditional sense, that we treasure our students, and take pride in our community. In our classes we emphasize this, as history teacher Michael Roper does when he brings in a Warsaw Ghetto survivor or a D-Day hero, as the coaches do when they put sportsmanship above winning, as the English department does when its theme of summer reading is justice for outsiders.

York Prep School was founded in 1969 with a clear vision: a school offering an outstanding education in a warm, yet challenging atmosphere. The York Prep philosophy is to combine a progressive environment with a traditional-values approach to education. It’s what makes us one of the best alternative high schools in NYC. At York Prep, we serve students in grades 6-12.

We are blessed with teachers who go above and beyond by giving a great deal of personal attention to every one of their students. We emphasize the quality of the relationship between student and teacher as part of the high standard of learning taking place. That includes the administration at all levels, the vast majority of whom also teach. We believe students succeed when they are taught at a level appropriate to their age and their aptitudes. We place all students in environments where they can succeed and must work to do so.

York Prep offers personalized education for every student, making us one of the best high schools in NYC. Our goal is to enable middle and high school students to reach beyond their comfort level and achieve real academic success. We pride ourselves in accomplishing this goal with a nurturing, structured environment where students are not afraid to take positive risks. At the same time, we are dedicated to academic excellence and strive to instill the work ethic inherent to that pursuit, as good grades without a challenge are meaningless.