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Our Insights

What’s Special

Individual support and opportunity for paid internships

The Downside

High suspension rate

Brooklyn Frontiers High School is designed to help students who have been held back at least twice in elementary or middle school, as well as current high schoolers with a minimum of one year at another school who want to transfer. This school gives students a second chance by offering them lots of individualized support, small classes and the opportunity for paid internships.

The school has made a speciality of helping students with significant reading problems. While most instruction in reading is geared toward elementary school children, Brooklyn Frontiers has developed approaches designed to engage and interest older students while helping them learn high school level material, according to a report by Advocates for Children. 

Opened in 2010, Brooklyn Frontiers is patterned after the High School of Excellence and Innovation in Manhattan. Its model is expensive: According to Chalkbeat, Brooklyn Frontiers “spends about $34,000 per student, compared with an average of nearly $21,000 citywide.”

In reflecting on their time at Brooklyn Frontiers, students remarked that it “changed my whole perspective on school” and I learned that “I can be myself and learn at the same time.”

Good Shepherd Services, a social services organization, provides students with coaches who meet with them individually to talk about academics, as well as what else is going on in their lives and their plans and aspirations for the future. Students also participate in paid Learning to Work internships to help them explore their interests and prepare for careers after high school.

Small class sizes, ranging from 10 to 20 students, ensure lots of individual attention. Founding principal Alona Cohen, PhD, was formerly a science teacher at South Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school. She gets high marks from teachers on the NYC School Survey, and told Chalkbeat that “her discipline strategy is usually discussion-based,” though “she’s also not afraid to suspend students.”  Indeed, the school’s suspension rate is far higher than the citywide average.

The school is located in downtown Brooklyn. Students can participate in extracurriculars such as musical instrument instruction, Regents prep, gardening and PSAL basketball.

SPECIAL EDUCATION: Roughly half the students enrolled receive special education services. The school has SETSS (special education teacher support services) and ICT (integrated co-teaching) classes. In a report called A Is for All, the legal advocacy group Advocates for Children said Brooklyn Frontiers has a particular focus on helping adolscents who have significant reading problems. (Katharine Safter, web reports, July 2018)

 

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School Stats

Citywide Average Key
This school is Better Near Worse than the citywide average

Academics

School
Citywide
Transfer school graduation rate
 
44%
How many students with disabilities graduate in 4 years?
 
32%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school offers enough activities and services for their children's needs?
 
100%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school works to achieve the goals of their students' IEPs?
 
100%
From the 2021-22 School Quality Guide and 2020-21 NYC School Survey

Students

147
Number of students
Citywide Average is 599

Race/Ethnicity


School
Citywide
Low-income students
 
88%
Students with disabilities
 
48%
Multilingual learners
 
6%
From the 2022-23 Demographic Snapshot

Safety & Vibe

School
Citywide
How many students were suspended?
 
1%
How many students say they feel safe in the hallways, bathrooms and locker rooms?
 
91%
How many students think bullying happens most or all of the time at this school?
 
28%
How many students say that some are bullied at their school because of their gender or sexual orientation?
 
20%
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey and 2019-20 NY State Report Card

Faculty & Staff

School
Citywide
How many teachers say the principal is an effective manager?
 
100%
11.2
Years of principal experience at this school
Citywide Average is 7
186
Number of students for each guidance counselor or social worker
Citywide Average is 157

Teachers’ Race/Ethnicity


How many teachers have 3 or more years of experience teaching?
 
87%
Are teachers effective?
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey, 2021-22 School Quality Guide, 2019-20 Report on School-Based Staff Demographics, 2021 Guidance Counselor Report, and this school's most recent Quality Review Report

Advanced Courses

Which students have access to advanced courses at this school? Learn more

Calculus

Not offered in 2019-20

Computer Science

Not offered in 2019-20

Physics

Not offered in 2019-20

Advanced Foreign Language

Not offered in 2019-20

AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science

Not offered in 2019-20

AP/IB Math or Science

 
63%

Music

 
17%
From unpublished, anonymized data from the 2021-22 school year provided by the New York State Education Department, brought to you by

College Readiness

School
Citywide
How many students graduate with test scores high enough to enroll at CUNY without remedial help?
 
8%
From the 2020-21 and 2021-22 School Quality Guide
How many students filled out a FAFSA form by the end of their senior year?
 
43%
From the 2022-23 FAFSA data released by Federal Student Aid, brought you by
For more information about our data sources, see About Our Data · More DOE statistics for this school

Programs & Admissions

From the 2024 High School Directory

Brooklyn Frontiers High School (L69A)

Admissions Method: Transfer

Offerings

From the 2024 High School Directory

Advanced Courses

AP Computer Science Principles, Comp Sci/Math Tech (Advanced Placement), ELA (College Course [Credited]), Other (College Course [Credited])

Boys PSAL teams

Basketball

Read about admissions, academics, and more at this school on NYCDOE’s MySchools

NYC Department of Education: MySchools

Contact & Location

Location

112 Schermerhorn Street
Brooklyn NY 11201

Trains: 2 Line, 3 Line, 4 Line, 5 Line, R Line to Borough Hall; A Line, C Line, F Line to Jay St - Borough Hall; B Line, Q Line to DeKalb Av; G Line to Hoyt & Schermerhorn

Buses: B103, B25, B26, B38, B41, B45, B52, B54, B57, B61, B62, B63, B65, B67


Contact

Principal: Alona Cohen

Parent Coordinator: Frances Martinez

Website

Other Details

Shared campus? No

This school is in its own building.

Uniforms required? No
Metal detectors? Yes

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