William Howard Taft High School is a former New York City high school in the southwest section of the Bronx, whose building now houses small specialized high schools. The school was operated by the New York City Department of Education.
The Taft school campus is located on Sheridan Avenue and 172nd Street in the Bronx.
Demographic and the advent of specialized magnet schools brought about shifts in enrollment. During the Abraham Beame (1974–1977) and Edward Koch (1978–1989) administrations, citywide, crime rates were high and unfavorable publicity accelerated the decline of the school. By the early 1970s, Taft H.S. earned a reputation as a "failing school" with many of the problems of other high schools in poor, marginalized neighborhoods in New York City.
Entering the 1990s, as a non-selective high school, it was unable to compete with the newer schools housing magnet programs that attracted prime students from throughout the borough. Crime intimidated vibrant young professionals from teaching at the high school. The danger was highlighted in May 1997, when Jonathan Levin, an English teacher at the school and the son of former Time Warner chairman Gerald M. Levin, was murdered by a former student in his Manhattan apartment.
Of the 629 students attending Taft in the 1990s, the majority were Hispanic and African-American. On any given day, attendance hovered around 86%. The impoverished community, lacking in political clout or a cohesive PTA, was provided 10 truancy officers, rather than improved education strategies. The last graduating class of Taft High School was in June 2008.
Transformation
Within the same building, the previously identified "failing school" has been transformed into a series of small specialized high schools to meet modern career needs. The specialty schools are: