Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School

Brooklyn Collegiate is a small high school that’s making some gains after a period of dwindling enrollment and low performance.

The city threatened in late 2017 to close the school for poor performance, but reversed itself a few months later to give it more time to improve. Since then, Brooklyn Collegiate’s graduation and college readiness rates have risen to levels on par with the citywide average.

Teachers are making a big effort to get more students prepared to take Advanced Placement (AP) courses in the upper grades. All freshmen take an AP seminar that focuses on learning to read and analyze complex texts. Lessons in grades 9 and 10 are designed to introduce students to the kinds of skills needed to tackle college-level coursework. In their English classes, freshmen and sophomores read books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Things Fall Apart, The Joy Luck Club and The Other Wes Moore. 

Beyond AP classes, students who are ready for the challenge may take courses at Medgar Evers College, Monroe College and Brooklyn College.

Brooklyn Collegiate opened in 2004 as a combined middle and high school, but in 2012 the city decided to phase out the middle school due to its poor performance. Achievement First Brownsville Charter School, a 6-12 charter school, moved into the former middle school space. 

Students have access to an onsite medical clinic.

ADMISSIONS: Priority to Brooklyn students and residents. Admission is based on the educational option formula, which is designed to admit a mix of low-, average- and high-achieving students. (Laura Zingmond, web reports, December 2018)