Six New Charter Schools To Open in Brooklyn
At least six new charter schools are expected to open in Brooklyn within the next two years. Park Slope’s Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has already been reported by the Daily News, but applications for four other K – 8 charter schools were approved by SUNY on the same day, all to be managed by Uncommon…
At least six new charter schools are expected to open in Brooklyn within the next two years. Park Slope’s Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has already been reported by the Daily News, but applications for four other K – 8 charter schools were approved by SUNY on the same day, all to be managed by Uncommon Schools. Mini “scholars” at the four schools can expect rigorous instruction from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Excellence Charter School for Girls, in the Bed-Stuy school district, and Leadership Preparatory East New York are scheduled to open this fall. Leadership Preparatory Flatbush and Brownsville are scheduled to open the following school year. Uncommon Schools also announced plans for their first charter high school in Crown Heights, located at 1485 Pacific Street at Kingston Avenue. Uncommon Schools spokeswoman Megan Zug said the organization purposefully chooses low-income neighborhoods “to close the achievement gap between low-income and high-income students.”
The private and publicly-funded high school designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects would have “four floors of brand new classrooms, science labs, art studios, a library, a technology center, a thousand-seat ‘cafetorium,’ several full-size gymnasiums, and a rooftop playfield,” according to the announcement. Up to 1,600 students from four existing charter middle schools would attend. One of those schools, the Excellence Charter School for Boys in Bed-Stuy (pictured), had SUNY’s third-largest difference from its local district in proficiency on the standardized English Language Arts exam, at 94 percent proficient versus 48 percent. In Math, 100 percent of the students passed versus 72.1 percent in the district, according to a SUNY annual report. Almost all charter schools fared better than their local district counterparts in the report, which detailed some pretty crisis-level proficiency rates. Do you think charter schools the solution to this crisis? What about the long days for elementary and middle school kids? Are they necessary, or should the kids be getting more downtime?
New Brookyln Charter School Recruiting Students for Fall ’09 Opening [Daily News]
Teaching Boys and Girls Separately [NY Times]
11:55 again — I meant to add that I think these charter shcools are great and are probably right where they should be. I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for people paying $1mm+ for a home and then complaining about not getting their kids into a charter school.
I’ve never understood why parents with school-age kids or soon-to-be-school-age kids would move to an area with bad zoned schools — unless you can afford private. I mean, this was the FIRST thing I looked for in a home.
“do you have to be poor to go to a charter school?”
No. These are PUBLIC charter schools that are open to anyone. They are located in traditionally low-income neighborhoods and give preference to students who are residents. They do not exclude anyone from applying or attending. Admissions is often done by lottery.
why can’t they go to school where they live in fort greene, prospect heights and PLG?
OR, maybe NOT pay so much for your home and put it towards your kid’s education?
I thought Uncommon Schools is a non-profit partially funded by the Robin Hood Foundation. It’s a for-profit business?
Yay, more corporate welfare.
“do you have to be poor to go to a charter school?”
I was thinking the same thing. It’s like college from the start where you have to be either filthy rich or poor enough for scholarship money to go. The middle class is lost. So will people from middle neighborhoods like fort greene, prospect heights, and PLG have to send their kids into the war zones of crown heights and bed sty to get a better education? That’s what they paid so much for their homes to avoid.
So kids should suffer just to prove a point, 10:47?
The old system is broken and choked by the unions so we figure out a new way to do things. The goal should be to get low income kids a better education and better prospects in life. Not to be political.
I work in another city, but with a similar population to that described here. I think it is fine for kids to be there for that long, so long as they are not working for eight hours. That is an adult’s standard workday, and not appropriate for a six year-old. I hope they have a chance to have more than one recess and other opportunities to take a break during the day.
do you have to be poor to go to a charter school?