Bronx Charter School for Excellence 4

Founded in 2018, Bronx Charter School for Excellence 4 offers a longer school day, firm discipline and two teachers in most classrooms. The school is safe and well run and the attendance rate is excellent. 

Modeled on the high-performing flagship school in Parkchester, Bronx 4 is housed in the former St. Mary’s Roman Catholic School building on Carpenter Avenue. It shares a building with Bronx Charter School for Excellence 3, which opened in 2017. Each school began with kindergarten and 1st grade classes and will add a grade each year until it is a full K-8 school. 

In the early grades, lessons feature projects and hands-on science experiments. Students study writing for about one hour a day and reading for two. Network CEO Charlene Reid has been quoted in news interviews saying most kindergartners are reading by November. 

Teachers use math programs based on the rigorous Singapore Math approach; Eureka Math in grades K-4 and Math in Focus in grades 5-8, according to the SUNY charter renewal report. In this approach, students study mathematical concepts using a three-step process: concrete, pictorial and abstract. In other words, a young child would progress from counting real objects, to using pictures and numbers on paper, to solving problems in her head. 

There are currently a total of five Bronx schools in this growing network in addition to one in Connecticut. [photo from the network’s Facebook page]

ADMISSIONS: Admission is by a lottery that takes place in April. See the website for more information.  (Lydie Raschka, web reports, May 2020)