[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1036]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING DEWITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 1997

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, DeWitt Clinton High School, in my 
congressional district, opened its doors for the first time in 1897 
with about 500 boys and 21 faculty assembled to hear from the 
principal. Since that time the school has moved several times and its 
enrollment has grown to 3,850.
  The school has also grown in stature and this year it was named one 
of the five most improved high schools in the United States. DeWitt 
Clinton was also praised because of its outstanding peer mediation and 
negotiation program.
  The school meets or exceeds all of the chancellor's standards. Its 
college admission rate was 91.1 percent last June while its dropout 
rate was only 2.8 percent. Its attendance rate is 90.8 percent. The 
students have also shown consistent improvement in the State regents 
exams over the past 4 years. Perhaps most significantly, it is one of 
only 11 New York City high schools, out of 136, given the highest 5-
star rating by the New York Times.
  A measure of a school's success is a list of its graduates and DeWitt 
Clinton's is most impressive with such alumni as James Baldwin, Burt 
Lancaster, Richard Rodgers, Neil Simon, A.M. Rosenthal, Paddy 
Chayefsky, Daniel Schorr, Arthur Gelb, Fats Waller, Jan Peerce, Nate 
Archibald, Bernard Kalb, and Stan Lee. These are people who have given 
to the country and to the world. The students at DeWitt Clinton have a 
strong tradition to uphold and show every indication of doing it.
  I join my colleagues in congratulating the school, its faculty, its 
students, and their parents as representatives of a century of higher 
education.

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