The success and popularity of Brooklyn New School, an alternative school that serves as a model for innovative schools throughout the region, allowed the school to expand by about 50 students, filled entirely of transfer students. Standardized test scores remain consistently high at BNS, but the school does not put the high priority on testing that many other schools do. Instead, teachers at BNS encourage project-based learning and take children on frequent field trips to enhance their studies. Students in 3rd through 5th grade go very far afield, traveling to the Poconos for an overnight environmental studies trip.