Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School was recently featured in New York City’s Department of Education Charter Schools Weekly, a round-up of articles highlighting the excellent work being done in charter schools throughout the state.
The following is an excerpt from NYC’s Department of Education feature:
Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School is a grassroots elementary/middle school founded by community members. Now in its sixteenth year of authorization, Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School has tinkered with operational and instructional approaches and landed on tried and true systems that reinforce a school culture that provides students with every opportunity to become their best. Principal Christopher Petty describes a school where, “...Nothing is static. Everything must grow and have a purpose or function relative to school culture.”
The article moves to share that displays within the school have an impact on outlining the school’s purpose and academic planning.
Petty believes in cutting out the superfluous; even school displays serve a defined purpose. On the road to creating a culture of achievement, bulletin boards turn into a tool for tracking student academic progress and making data readily available to parents entering school space. Task cards and scoring rubrics keep parents up to date on passing units of study and parents get to see what constitutes grade-A work. Bulletin boards are refreshed every two weeks and every classroom reflects a healthy display of teacher modeling.
The article then describes the instructional performance of Brooklyn Excelsior’s teachers. “Teachers review available data, plan instruction based on the data, deliver instruction, and assess progress,” said the NYC Department of Education. Brooklyn Excelsior’s assessment program is outlined in the following:
Each Friday in ELA and Math students take a formative assessment. Students who perform on grade level or above have their pictures and blank copies of the assessment displayed on a bulletin board in the classroom.
The article concluded by sharing that teacher turnover at the school is at a 6-year low, and that student performance in English language arts and math has been showing strong over the last three years.
About Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School
Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School is a tuition-free, public charter school in Brooklyn, New York, serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.
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