Head of Avenues: The World School steps down

Avenues makes a big deal about being an immersion school, offering both Spanish and Mandarin immersion. However when I visited last year I did not get the impression that in Chinese, students got 50% of their academic instruction in Chinese, which is the definition of immersion.

Education Entrepreneur Chris Whittle Resigns From Avenues School
Avenues: The World School plans expansion into Brazil and China

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER
March 5, 2015 5:48 p.m. ET

Chris Whittle, the education impresario who some credit with igniting the national charter-school movement, has resigned from his latest, high-profile venture, Avenues: The World School, officials at the Chelsea private school said Thursday.

“Chris is a great entrepreneur and I think he’s come to the conclusion that he probably accomplished what he wanted to accomplish,” said one of the school’s original co-founders Alan Greenberg.

“I am proud for sure of all that we’ve done. There’s plenty more to do,” Mr. Whittle said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “And I’m sorry I’m not going to be a part of it.”

The for-profit school, which raised $75 million to open in a renovated landmark building near the High Line. It pitched itself as part of a future global network, promising that students could move seamlessly between the Manhattan campus and 14 other schools around the world by 2021.

With its stylish historic building, abundant technology (every student receives a laptop and an iPad) and high-profile leadership drawn from some of the top academies in the country—including Dalton and Exeter—Avenues quickly established itself in the competitive New York City private-school landscape.

The school is on pace to exceed enrollment targets. Official say they have expanded the number of sections per grade, and are expecting 1,375 students next year, when the school fields its first 12th-grade class. In 10 years, they project enrollment to reach 2,120 students annually—32% higher than their initial estimates.

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