Ember Charter Schools

We endeavor to ignite, empower, and transform people traditionally labeled “at-risk” into social entrepreneurs, engineers, and global leaders. Through our holistic and progressive human development model, we at Ember Charter School for Mindful Education, Innovation & Transformation, seek to empower the minds that will create a more equitable and thoughtful world based in love and kindness.

Get to Know this Liberatory School

Ember seeks to transform students labeled as 'at-risk' into social entrepreneurs through mindfulness, trauma informed practices, and culturally and economically relevant pedagogy.

Location: Two locations in Brooklyn, NY

Size: 300-499

Demographics:

  • 79% Black

  • 19% Latinx

  • 1% Two or More Races

  • 1% White

Grade Band: K-12

Governance Structure: Public Charter School

Website: https://www.embercs.org/

Graduate Aims

Design Principles

Life Skills

We'll develop their agency and self-efficacy; critical thinking skills; social, emotional, and physical well-being; mindful leadership and global citizenship; substantive international exposure and experiences.

Thought Leadership

We'll develop and provide thought leadership, training and developing staff and other organizations committed to the same values and principles we employ and allowing this to trickle down to our student base.

Community Development

We contribute to the positive and healthy economic, social, and cultural development of the traditionally underserved, under-resourced, low income, and "at risk" people of the communities we serve.

Self Confidence

Our socio-emotional programming includes identity development, accountability training, and group therapy to develop global citizenship, self-confidence, and self-worth among all of our students.

Mindfulness, Trauma-Informed, & Culturally-Responsive

The overwhelming majority of the students we serve have and continue to experience deeply debilitating trauma. At Ember we teach and employ mindfulness as our primary metacognitive tool to facilitate healing and develop self-efficacy. We combine this practice with an equal commitment to nurturing self-love and -esteem using culturally responsive and affirming techniques rooted in empowerment and agency to support the development of a holistic growth mindset.

Critical Thinking

Everything we do here at Ember is centered around courting critical thinking. From our integrated classes such as: ESA (ELA/Social Studies) and STEM (Science, Math, Tech) to our Socratic Inquiry & Dialogue approach, critical thinking is our DNA.

Love and Kindness

On top of engaging in analysis and complexity, cultivating love & kindness is at the core of our program. We are developing human beings who will go out and create a more equitable world based in love & kindness.

Featured Student Experiences

Study Abroad

Ember offers guided study abroad experiences to students in 7th and 8th Grade on a bi-annual basis. These international experiences are similar to the private and Gifted and Talented study abroad opportunities for their privileged peers, to provide “at-risk” population (low income, socioeconomically underserved youth), with expansive progressive, holistic and global education opportunities that have been widely unavailable to them before now. Ember's study abroad takes place for several weeks in both the fall and spring semester; cohorts are single-sex, led by full-time Ember staff, and core academic learning will mirror the same instruction in Brooklyn.

Single-Sex Cohorts

Ember offers single-sex cohorts for both boys and girls, affording an opportunity to not only serve the entire community, but to also strategically expose students to gender-integrated programming to proactively engage well-documented psycho-social challenges that characterize so much of adolescence, from body image to bullying, sexism to homophobia.

Uhuru Ashe

Starting in 5th Grade students enter “Uhuru Ashe,” a group co-facilitated by leads + social workers. This group dives into the social emotional + understanding of our students perception of self as it relates to themselves, their peers and the multiple environments that they are a part of.

Key School-Wide Practices

Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

Ember's instructional methodology includes a focus on the utilization of the following innovative teaching practices:

  • Integrated Instruction and Differentiation

  • Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

  • Economically Relevant Pedagogy

  • Socratic Questioning and Design Thinking

  • Neuropedagogy (incorporation of self-efficacy, critical thinking, and executive functioning skills into instructional practice)

  • Mindfulness and meditation

Ember is centered around critical thinking and instructional blocks are interdisciplinary, such as ESA (ELA/Social Studies) and STEM (Science, Math, Tech). These classes employ instructional approaches such as Socratic Inquiry and Dialogue.

Community & Culture

Nearly all Ember students are Black and LatinX, are from Central Brooklyn, one of the lowest income communities in New York City, and almost 90% of our students qualify for Federal free and reduced priced lunch. Ember has many English Language Learners and immigrants. More than 55% of all students have experienced trauma, with more than 40% of those students experiencing severe and ongoing trauma - which is why their commitment to human development runs deep.

Ember's model purposely rejects the ‘no-excuses’ approach in favor of a focus on holistic human development. By nurturing student agency, critical thinking, cultural fluency, executive functioning and social emotional skills, they enable their students to grow consistently and significantly each year. Each individual schoolhouse (classroom) creates their own approach to culture and behavioral expectations that are aligned with whole school values and vision.

Schedule & Use
of Time

Each classroom is called a schoolhouse and operate autonomously yet aligned. Students stay together with the peers and adults in their schoolhouse each day. In the Upper Middle and High School grades, cohorts are single-sex. Additionally, Ember teachers loop with their schoolhouse/cohort for 3-4 years on average.

Adult Roles & Learning

Ember is a Teacher-Led Firm. Partners (Lead Teachers) serve as the primary decision-makers of the Firm. The Partners guide and empower staff as they pursue alignment to the “frameworks” that serve as the bedrock of the enterprise. Associates (Team leads) are broken into three categories: Senior, Mid-Level and Junior. Every Lead Teacher Associate is paired with a Co-Teacher Apprentice. Paraprofessionals are deployed based on the needs of the particular Schoolhouse (classroom) and/or Grade Team.

Ember teachers are Human Development Practitioners - they believe in developing human beings who will go out and create a more equitable world based in love & kindness. Ember believes that Lead Teachers are best positioned to respond to the individuals needs of students in each Schoolhouse (classroom), and thus our teacher-led leadership structure delegates to each lead teacher the authority to choose how to specifically implement instructional and behavioral plans and support in ways that meet the needs of their specific students.

Family & Community Partnerships

Families are partners in their child's education and are very involved in how the school will support their children. There are also many opportunities for parents and caretakers to come together and connect, such as My Sister's Keeper. Learn more about parent involvement at Ember here.

Space &
Facilities

Ember offers residential, community-based boarding opportunities in high school.

Budget & Operations

Ember offers admission preference to students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch (to the extent permitted by law).

See It. Hear It. Feel It.

Study Abroad in South Africa

The Ember Way