Students at Teachers Preparatory Secondary School may tutor younger children or even work as teachers’ assistants. Others take courses in the arts or plant vegetables in community gardens.

This small combined middle and high school, founded in 2002, is open to children from across Brooklyn. It shares a building and sports teams with Frederick Douglass Academy VII. The female double-dutch team won the citywide championship in 2012.

Teachers Prep is something of a misnomer because the school offers more than instruction for students who hope one day to become teachers. At the end of 9th grade, students may elect to be in the "Teach for Tomorrow" program, the "Arts Centered Program," or an urban farming program called “EATS.”

The school's teaching program requires students to maintain a C+ average and log student teaching and tutoring hours. The arts program offers offers visual arts, dance and music. The EATS program, part of the Active Citizens Project, teaches students about high-yield farming strategies and business techniques.

The school offers an honors track for high-achievers and a handful of Advanced Placement courses, including calculus and English. High school students may take physics or forensic science. Spanish is the only foreign language offered.

While most students feel safe inside the building, about 40 percent who responded to the Learning Environment Survey said they don’t feel safe in the surrounding neighborhood.

“The neighborhood is what it is, that we can’t change." Principal Carmen Simon told us at the high school fair. “But our school is a haven.” Simon, a founding teacher of the school and principal since 2009, said her students don’t have discipline issues.

Uniforms are required Monday through Thursday: 6th, 7th and 8th graders wear collared, light blue tops and navy blue bottoms; high school students wear white collared shirts and black or khaki bottoms. Simon says students who don’t wear the uniform get detention. “We want to teach our students how to be professional, starting with dress,” she said. Cell phones are not allowed. All students have lockers.

Special education: Nearly 20 percent of the high school students have special needs, and about half of those kids are in self-contained classes. The school also offers co-taught classes which have two teachers, one of whom is certified in special education.

College: Simon says the school has dedicated college counselors. The school works with the College Summit program, which plans college visits. According to the school’s brochure, three of the five first valedictorians were accepted at Ivy League schools on full scholarship.

Admissions: Contact the school for a middle school application. High school students are admitted according to the educational option program designed to ensure a mix of different abilities. (Anna Schneider, interviews, December 2012)