What Does “Excellence on Purpose” Look Like in Malverne Senior High School?: Announcing NYKids Latest Persistent Positive Outlier Case Study

We are excited to announce the case study of Malverne Senior High School our latest persistent positive outlier school in this study, is now available. Below, we share some of the major themes we found and share take-aways on what “excellence on purpose” looks like in practice.

Malverne Senior High School Background

Malverne Senior HS is in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The many surrounding towns enveloping the school, with their unique demographic profiles, contribute to this richly diverse school community. While most students are born and raised in the Malverne Union-Free School District, the percentage of English language learners (ELLs) in relation to the entire student population has increased somewhat in recent years. Most of the ELLs are Spanish speaking, and this has been a long-term trend. However, Malverne has increasingly served students from other regions around the world, including South Asia and the Caribbean, most notably, Haiti.

Like other schools across NYS, the Malverne community has experienced a variety of challenges in recent years – most notably due to COVID-19 pandemic-related school disruptions. Malverne educators noted the need to find new ways to foster student engagement, with a special focus on addressing youth use of social media and cell phones in school. Malverne educators also identified the increased need to address young people’s overall well-being by focusing more attention on supporting them to take care of themselves mentally and physically. To address these and other challenges, Malverne educators have innovated in a variety of ways, including in what academic coursework and extracurriculars they offer as well as how they engage in student and family communications.

Key Findings

Investment In and Ownership for Nurturing Close Human Connections

I never want to hear “these kids.” . . .  I want to hear “our kids.” Our kids deserve everything every other child deserves, and Malverne figures out a way to make that happen. – district leader

The atmosphere of Malverne Senior HS evokes the feeling of family: the way adults and young people relate to each other is less about adhering to traditional roles of educator (or school staff member) and student, but more about human connection. This extends to how Malverne educators and staff talk about young people as “our kids” or “my kids” versus “students.” How individual adult-youth connections are fostered is not only intentional, but expected and therefore normative. This investment in and ownership for nurturing close human connections extends to celebrating and honoring each individual’s value and contribution to the Malverne community.

Future-oriented and Ambitious

We don’t feel like we’re there— like our work is ever done. We’re looking at areas where we need to improve. And I think the second we sit back and say we’re good, we’re going to have a lot of problems. – district leader

In Malverne Senior HS, leaders and educators showed evidence of positioning themselves in a way that is future oriented and ambitious. This was evident in the ways many of the leaders and educators participating in this study described embracing innovation and a “never done” stance to address current and future needs. As discussed above, the school and district are part of a culturally rich community history, which Malverne educators mine to craft rich learning opportunities. Whether through developing a highly adaptive and accessible schedule every year, crafting engaging new courses, or offering new entry points into arts, sports, clubs, and a slew of other activities, Malverne educators lean into the motto “small yet do it all” to meet students’ various needs.

Leveraging Legacy and Leading in the Education Field

What I’ve seen over the past 20 years is a complete transformation. . . . This is a place where students can take pride and come in and feel like . . . “We’re Malverne.” And we’re saying it loud and proud — “We are Malverne, and this is what we’re doing.”  – district leader

 As a complement to their future-orientation and innovative stance, Malverne educators described efforts to carry forward a legacy of excellence in service to their community. They also strive to provide leadership in the field of education, particularly regarding addressing inequities and opening up rich learning opportunities in culturally diverse communities like their own. Educators take pride in the strides their school and community have made to close opportunity gaps, and they trumpet their many successful alums’ stories to present an image of the school as an institution to celebrate and support.

Innovative Ideas to Take Away:

• Consider crafting your school (and district) portrait of a graduate and build in social-emotional skills like collaboration along with other high priority outcomes appropriate for your own community.
• Consider being very intentional about building close human connections between kids and adults and make those connections an expectation for all in the school community. Go further to make those connections inter-generational in ways that celebrate the legacy of school staff and students through events like legacy dinners.

What’s next?

Read the entire Malverne Senior High School study on our website and stay tuned as NYKids will continue to release case studies of emergent and persistent positive outlier schools this summer!

As always, we thank you for your interest in NYKids!  Please reach out to us at nykids@albany.edu or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn! We also encourage you to contact us if you are interested in NYKids direct school improvement support this summer.