Our Model
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
- Nipsey Hussle
who are we?
All of our students, nearly all of whom are Black and LatinX, are from Central Brooklyn, one of the lowest income communities in New York City. Almost 90% of our students qualify for Federal free and reduced priced lunch (an indicator for serve poverty). 10% of our student are English Language Learners and more than 35% of parents were born abroad, from the Caribbean, to Central and West Africa, to Central and South America. More than 15% are students with disabilities. More than 55% of all students have experienced trauma, with more than 40% of those students experiencing severe and ongoing trauma.
Our unique approach furthers and achieves the objectives of in the New York Charter Act (Education Law §2850(2))
By design, we improve student learning and achievement. We offer Ember students instruction that focuses on the development of self-efficacy, executive functioning and critical thinking skills. All of which have been shown to significantly improve student learning and achievement outcomes for students from high poverty households – the same demographic Ember will serve.
Encourages use of different and innovative teaching methods
Our instructional methodology includes a focus on the utilization of the following innovative teaching practices:
Integrated Instruction, Differentiation and Looping
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
Equal Education
Our goal is to provide the children in this high poverty, high unemployment and high violence community with an education equal or better than higher socio-economic school zones. When they are well educated with academics and leadership, they’ll become leaders who lift up their whole community.
Access to Quality
Ember offers admission preference to students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch (to the extent permitted by law).
Provide parents/students with expanded choices in educational opportunities
We provide parents and students with expanded choices in the types of opportunities available within the public school system through our unique offerings in four major program components:
Looping - Teachers stay with their schoolhouse/cohort for 3-4 yrs on average.
Single-sex cohorts (upper middle school and high school)
Substantive and guided international learning experiences in 7th and 8th Grades
Residential, community-based boarding opportunity in High School