Our mission

The mission of Brooklyn Ascend is to equip every student with the knowledge, confidence, and character to succeed in college and beyond. Our students will, from the earliest grades, steadily build a strong foundation of learning habits, critical thinking skills, and knowledge; excel academically in the middle and high schools; and graduate as confident young adults, prepared to succeed as college students, citizens, and leaders in their chosen fields.

Our school

Brooklyn Ascend Charter School opened in September 2008 and is Ascend Learning’s flagship school. Brooklyn Ascend Middle School opened in 2011, and currently serves students in grades 5 through 8. The 46,000-square-foot building includes an innovative immersion environment with specially designed galleries on each floor that present a rotating collection of museum-quality reproductions of artwork and artifacts related to students’ studies in the arts, sciences, and humanities. The facility also includes a library. 

School hours

Monday to Thursday: 8 am to 4:00 pm

Friday: 8 am to 1 pm

​ACADEMICS AND CULTURE

Learning at Ascend

In Ascend middle schools, teachers encourage our students’ imagination and love of learning as they become confident learners with strong critical-thinking, reading, and writing skills and develop  the ability to use different strategies of inquiry to explore complex concepts.

The Ascend Common Core Curriculum
Every day, students engage in two full periods each of humanities (English language arts) and mathematics. Students also study science and social studies every day, continue their instruction in Spanish twice weekly, and study art, music, and physical education each week.

The primary goals of Ascend’s ambitious Humanities Program are cultural literacy; critical-thinking, writing, close-reading, and public-speaking skills; and art and music appreciation. Modeled on the practices of the finest private schools, the program develops the individual voice and reading sensibility of each Ascend student, using a customized syllabus that includes a cross-cultural selection of classic literature from diverse cultures and periods. Many works of art studied in the program are linked to museum-quality reproductions in the middle school’s unique “galleries.”

The Ascend middle school mathematics program is tightly aligned with the Common Core and based on the curricula of Singapore, which posts some of the strongest math outcomes in the world. The curriculum includes pre-algebra, first-year algebra, and geometry. The program emphasizes deep understanding and mastery of topics—depth over breadth. It includes an emphasis on computational skills along with conceptual and strategic thinking processes.

In middle school, Ascend students harness the study of science and technology to explore issues of importance to them, their community, and society. In a three-part program in earth science, physical science, and life science, students engage issues that require an understanding of important scientific concepts and processes and  the application of evidence, are interesting and accessible to diverse groups of students, and are complex enough to foster discussion and debate.

After-school program
Brooklyn Ascend Middle School was awarded a four-year $3.6 million grant from the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to fund a free, full-year afterschool program. In addition to an academic tutoring component, students can sign up for karate, wrestling, coding, debate, dance, fencing, band, and more, all taught by leading organizations from across New York City. For more information, contact Karenga.arifu@ascendlearning.org.

A joyful, rigorous culture
At Brooklyn Ascend Middle School we are committed to building a joyful, rigorous culture of high expectations and creating an environment where students develop social and emotional competencies in a safe and warm school community.