Philosophy ~ Brooklyn Preparatory High School
Our school is organized to ensure that high academic standards are accompanied by intensive individual support. Teachers work together on interdisciplinary grade level teams and are jointly responsible for the students they serve. Every student has an advisor who runs a special class for about 15 students and whose special responsibility is to know each advisee well. Class size is limited to about 25 in all our classes. To maximize the attention that teachers can give to individual students, there are two instructors in Collaborative Team Teaching classes.
Underlying the program at Brooklyn Prep are the following beliefs:
- Intelligence is something that is developed through focused, efficient effort.
- Students develop a sense of both safety and self-efficacy by belonging to a
community that needs and values their effort and contribution and that encourages
them to take academic risks without fear of ridicule.
- Humans remember more of what they study when they learn by doing and by teaching
others. Therefore, students need opportunities to apply concepts, skills and
information to real-life situations through projects, service learning, publishing
and internships.
- Adolescents learn better when they have choice –- over the books they read, the
topics they research, and the projects through which they demonstrate mastery.
- Multiple forms of assessment help teachers meet students’ needs and track their
progress towards mastery as well as giving students different ways to demonstrate
their mastery.
- Reading and writing are the foundation for negotiating the outside world as
well as sources of pleasure and self-discovery and are part of every subject and
class.
