Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity

Brooklyn Generation is a tiny high school that offers a longer school day, college trips for teens (and their parents), and instruction in French, dance and drumming.

Founded in 2007, the school has had ups and downs but has shown improvement in recent years. The graduation rate is rising. Attendance and enrollment are up. Class size is small, with only 20 to 25 children in academic classes. Art, gym and French classes are only slightly larger.

A new mental health clinic on site has been a big help in supporting students, said former principal Louis Garcia, who took the helm in 2018. The school has a partnership with Urban Arts, and has a deepened its focus on science, technology, engineering and math. 

To boost rigor in academics, and get more children ready for college-level work, seniors do research projects that culminate in papers and a presentation, such as a Power Point, or a Town Hall discussion, the principal said. One child studied the water processing station across the street; another looked at factors that impact student motivation. The school launched its first AP biology class in 2018 with nine students.

Garcia is proud of the school’s “four-year conversation” around college. “Many of our students are first generation college contenders,” he said. To alleviate parental concerns about sending their kids away for college, parents are invited to accompany students on an overnight trip to visit SUNY and private colleges in upstate New York.

Further, Brooklyn Generation visits colleges where their own alumni are current students, the principal said. It allows teens to see, “These students look just like me, and are going to look out for me,” he said. Not all children are ready for college and the school tries to help those kids make a plan, too, he said.

The school goes the extra mile to welcome and support all families. The community school director speaks Haitian Creole, the principal said, and the extended day learning coordinator speaks Arabic. The health clinic helps families address needs like substance abuse and stresses that may arise from homelessness. “We’ve been able to be flexible to really address needs that weren’t being met, Garcia said.

BGS is housed in the South Shore Educational Complex. South Shore has worked hard to overcome a stigma as a violent place. School surveys show there are still concerns about discipline and order. Issues arise mostly in the building’s shared spaces, the principal said. “We have six schools,” he explained. “We share a cafeteria, a locker room, entrance and exits.”

Increasingly, the schools are working together to serve all students better. The campus has a new media center and a family welcome center. The music room and auditorium are undergoing renovation.

“For years we were encouraged to be silos,” Garcia said. “Now, we are working to build a campus feel, to work together.”

High achievers may join AP courses anywhere in the building, whether it’s Brooklyn Generation’s own AP biology course, or AP statistics, AP calculus or AP English Literature at another school. PSAL sports are also building-wide.

ADMISSIONS: Educational option, or “Ed Opt,” which means the school seeks a range of low-, average- and high-achieving students. (Lydie Raschka, web reports and principal interview, 2018)