Brooklyn Free School

Why Brooklyn Free School was nominated

Brooklyn Free School’s mission is education for social justice. Always advocating for young people’s voices to be heard, BFS engages students and staff in democratic decision-making and problem solving. They honor student choice and facilitate student-centered learning through play and exploration, constructivist teaching, collaborative course work and self-directed student initiatives. They support social and emotional development through conflict mediation, personal reflection, diversity awareness and community responsibility., Transcend has profiled this school in the past for their commitment to anti-racist practices. This is done through curriculum, service learning, social justice seminar, affinity groups, and more. The school is based on democratic principles (like during Democratic Meetings) and young people shape the school itself and how they spend their time there. They clean the school, have a long community lunch, and have unstructured time built into schedules. BFS forgoes traditional grading and transcript for a narrative report from teadchers and documentation of mastery. 60% of staff are of color, and despire being a private school, 99% of students avail of the sliding scale for tuition.