Brooklyn Free School

Students are encouraged to be leaders of their learning. In high school, students partner directly with teachers to design a curriculum that speaks to their interests, desires, and questions. Hands-on, real-world learning takes place through this curriculum in addition to structures like internships, independent studies, and trips. Students are encouraged to share their strengths and learnings by leading classes and workshops. In middle school, students partner with teachers to help select the best-fit classes, and teachers are careful to teach to students' strengths, interests, and areas of growth. Students set academic and personal goals that help teachers select aligned curricular choices. Even in the lower school, classes are child-led in that teachers solicit student interests and desires and design classroom activities around them. Furthermore, students are encouraged to lead learning and teaching whenever possible.

BFS is dedicated to graduating students who are prepared for college but do not believe in rote grading and testing. Instead, high school students complete narrative self-assessments and teachers complete descriptive evaluations. Together they help form a narrative transcript that more accurately represents the uniqueness and wholeness of each student. (If students choose to take standardized testing, such as AP tests, BFS supports them in that endeavor). Middle School learning is ungraded, instead, students write a narrative self-evaluation to reflect on the learning and collect strong evidence of learning throughout the year, which culminates in a Portfolio sharing their growth.

In this inclusive, democratic community, students not only have a say, but they also have regular opportunities to lead meetings and classes. Students share in the running of the school through weekly all-school democratic meetings as well as their own daily morning meetings. The littlest learners are supported in leading their daily morning meetings and have the opportunity to chair the weekly all-school meeting. Conflict resolution, deep discussions, shared materials, voting on decisions, and student-led affinity groups ensure that every student is seen, heard, and affirmed. Community is further built by additional structures, such as classroom agreements, mixed-age advisories, daily democratic meetings, unstructured playtime, celebrations, field trips, trips for all students, rotating lunch buddies, and shared resources and spaces. Students also eat lunch as a whole school, with rotating partners to ensure that students are spending equitable time getting to know one another.

Classes and advisories are mixed age and small. Students across the school have a one-hour community lunch. Once a week, students get together in 'pods' and clean spaces shared by the whole school. On Fridays, groups leave the school to learn in the community. Time is also protected every week for free play and group games. In middle and high school, students are awarded the opportunity to include free, unstructured time in their schedules each day. This enables them to check out a book in the library or play a board game with a friend if so desired. In terms of adults, staff stays late on Wednesdays for meetings and collaboration.

Over 60% of BFS staff are people of color. BFS has a unique philosophy in which teachers are guides - students are free to learn and explore in ways that are right for them. BFS provides teaching institutes to train teachers from and outside of the organization in their approach.

Families are an essential part of BFS and are invited to participate in the high school as visiting teachers, chaperones, and guests for celebrations such as our advisory potlucks and spring barbecue. They are also supported through parenting workshops and affinity groups. BFS also has several partnerships with the community, including afterschool and summer programming, an artist-in-residence, etc.

Students get outside into the neighborhood daily, whether during unstructured time or a student- or teacher-led field trip. Every Friday is a time where learners leave the building and learn while exploring the city. Students show care for the physical spaces they occupy by cleaning their own and communal spaces (which are open for students to use at all times) throughout the building. Brooklyn Free School is housed in a beautiful, historic five-story brownstone in the heart of Clinton Hill and licenses the space after school and on the weekends to community groups.

Brooklyn Free School offers sliding scale tuition. Sliding scale tuition enables all BFS families to educate their children as equal members of an economically, racially, and culturally diverse community. The sliding scale is based on the principle that a family’s financial commitment should be in equitable proportion to its financial resources. 99% of the student body avails of the sliding scale tuition.