Entertainment

The next big things

While New York City’s most elite and selective schools accept only kids with top grades and test scores, others take students who struggled in middle school — and then work wonders. The best of these inclusive schools strive to whip students into shape for a top college or well-paying career. The Department of Education and Insideschools.org, an independent guide to public schools, identified some up-and-coming gems. Here are just a dozen.

NEW YORK CITY’S BEST HIGH SCHOOLS

Knowledge and Power Preparatory Academy International High School (KAPPA)

500 E Fordham Road, The Bronx

A “hidden treasure,” this challenging school on a cheery top floor of the Theodore Roosevelt complex offers an International Baccaulaureate diploma. The demanding degree requires students to learn a foreign language, write a 15-20 page research essay, make an oral presentation, and pass subject exams. KAPPA students take four years of a language: Spanish, French or Modern Greek. Grads must do 150 hours of community service. Students may travel to foreign countries, including Costa Rica, Egypt, and Italy. Grads have gone to schools such as Vanderbilt, Duke, and Skidmore — some with scholarships

Collegiate Institute for Math and Science

925 Astor Ave., The Bronx

Freshmen visit the University of Vermont and Vassar College, which sponsor the trips. Juniors and seniors meet with an advisor weekly to plan and complete college applications and financial-aid forms.

The standards are high: Each student is required to study: four years of math, science, English and social studies. Offers six APs, including calculus and chemistry, and Spanish, required for three years. Many electives from poetry to genetics. Students get internships. Located in the huge Christopher Columbus complex with other small schools.

High School for Public Service

600 Kingston Ave., Brooklyn

Founded after 9/11, this 420-student school in the old Wingate HS building pairs challenging academics with civic-mindedness. Students till a one-acre farm, growing heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, sorrel, strawberries, herbs, and more. Some 800 pounds of pesticide-free produce is sold at the school’s Farmers Market — which accepts food stamps. The Go Green class covers biology and health. Students devote up to 1,000 hours in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, tutoring centers. Pupils enter a legal or medical academy. Ninety percent of last year’s grades enrolled in college — including Ivy League.

Millennium Brooklyn High School

237 7th Ave., Brooklyn

Opened in 2011 with its first freshman class, this small school in Park Slope aims to replicate the success of sister Millennium HS in Manhattan. Practices brought to the John Jay complex, which houses several other schools, are a two-year bio-chem curriculum and a humanities program of English and history. The sister schools share a swim team that practices in the John Jay pool. Groups of 15-16 students meet daily with an advisor. As the school expands it expect to offer six APs.

Williamsburg Preparatory School

257 North 6th St., Brooklyn

Brainy kids flock to this school to get a rigorous education. Freshmen can take two periods of math. All students take double periods of English, which includes quiet reading time, in their first and second years. The school also requires a senior seminar devoted to writing five- and 10-page research papers — aimed at helping them avoid having to take remedial classes in college. Offers 10 AP classes, including three online.

Academy for Young Writers

1065 Elton St., Brooklyn

All students are expected to publish their writing by graduation. The school has its own publishing house, a poet in residence and a staff of young teachers who work closely with their charges.

Freshmen and sophomores take a two-year writing lab which introduces creative and analytical skills. All courses end with an exhibition of writing in every subject. The school is striving to boost student math skills.

NYC i-School

131 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan

Computer-based instruction marks this innovative school, which opened in 2008. Learning “modules” may include a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” or making a documentary about being 16. Students learn music composition and video editing. They take classes in Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese, but can also study Polish, German and Swedish with Rosetta Stone tutorials. The school offers nine APs.

Central Park East High School

1573 Madison Ave., Manhattan

“We are proud to be CPEHSIANS!” students cheer. Located in the Jackie Robinson complex, the East Harlem school offers small classes, an emphasis on writing, and a full-time college counselor. This year, it won a $250,000 grant to help prepare black and Latino boys for its five AP classes. Students have visited Cathedral of St. John the Divine to study Middle Age architecture and religion. CPEHS offers football and other sports by teaming up with other small schools.

World Journalism Preparatory

34-65 192nd St., Queens

This 6-12 school, which opened in 2006, is the brainchild of founding principal, Cynthia Schneider, who taught English and journalism in the Midwest before moving to New York.

Students create mock news reports in the school’s film studio, run the “WJPS Broadcast News Channel,” and produce a school newspaper, The Blazer.

The school offers seven AP classes, and Spanish.

Located on the top floor of IS 25, it has a computer lab equipped with PCs and Macs, laptops, and video equipment.

The Academy for Careers in Television and Film

36-41 28th St., Queens

Near the TV and movie studios in Long Island City, this school founded in 2008 has quickly become one of the city’s most popular and successful.

It offers students the chance to make movies, commercials, and TV shows while taking regular academic classes. They get internships or summer jobs in the industry, thanks to school partners, including Silver Cup Studios, the Tribeca Film Institute and the Museum of the Moving Image.

It offers four APs, including calculus; Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese.

East West School of International Studies

46-21 Colden St., Queens

This unique Flushing school offers up to four years of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Asian-inspired arts and sports such as anime, Korean drumming, Chinese calligraphy and judo. Some students go on trips to China and Japan, but families usually pay the airfare. Honors courses in calculus, economics, physics and marine biology. The school does not yet offer AP classes, but students can take college classes through CUNY’s College Now program.

High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture

94-06 104th St., Queens

Exposes students to all aspects of building construction. Opened in 2006 in a bright new building in Ozone Park. Seniors design and build a two-story house complete with insulation, plumbing and wiring in the backyard. Students use flat-screened computers. The building has a state-of-the-art auditorium, sound-proof music rooms and a large, sunny gym. Offers seven APs.