The city Department of Education is looking to keep up with the fastest-growing technology sector in the country by opening a software engineering school in the Bronx.
The Bronx Academy for Software Engineering, a four year career and technical education (CTE) high school, will be opening this fall.
The school is set to open with 115 ninth graders at the Grace Dodge Career and Technical High School campus at 2474 Crotona Ave., near Fordham University.
Students will receive four years of training in programming, software design and app development.
The curriculum calls on students to engage in creative, solution-orientated problem solving, with all of the learning revolving around the context of community.
Students’ senior projects will involve taking on an issue directly related to a community they care about, and then using design thinking and software engineering to work toward a meaningful solution.
There is no screening process, and any eighth grade student can apply to be accepted, according to the city Department of Education.
During their four years in the CTE program, students will build portfolios to showcase their skills, helping to ensure they will be ready for college or to enter into the industry.
Ben Grossman, the school’s principal, started his career in education at a transfer high school in the Bronx. He joined a Children First Network in 2010 as an achievement coach and later as director of achievement, providing instructional support to a network of 30 NYC public schools.
He has worked closely with principals and assistant principals to conduct network quality reviews and has trained school leaders on city and state school accountability.
For more information, go to the school website at bronxsoftware.org/.
Kirsten Sanchez can be reach via e-mail at ksanchez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3394
