School type Independent Enrollment Total: 900 Mascot The Lion Color Maroon Faculty 110 | Head of school Robert D. Vitalo Phone +1 718-789-6060 Founded 1982 Number of students 900 | |
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Established 1886 (Berkeley Institute)
1966 (Carroll Street School)
1982 (consolidation) Average SAT scores 660 Verbal
690 Math
680 Writing Address 181 Lincoln Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA Similar Brooklyn Friends School, Saint Ann's School, The Packer Collegiate Institute, Poly Prep Country Day School, Friends Seminary Profiles | ||
The Berkeley Carroll School is a coed independent college prep school in New York City. Located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, it has a Lower School (preK - grade 4), Middle School (grades 5-8) and Upper School (grades 9-12). Its mission is "to prepare our graduates for success in college and for the greater endeavor—a life of critical, ethical, and global thinking."
Contents
Academics
The school has three educational divisions, from preschool through high school. All divisions focus on the school mission of preparing students for success in college and a life of critical, ethical and global thinking. The Lower School, with preschool through grade four, focuses on the fundamentals of reading, writing, math, science, technology, the arts, and social studies. In 2012, the Lower School started a Spanish partial-immersion program, in which all classes are partially taught in Spanish to help students become comfortable hearing and speaking Spanish at an early age.
The Middle School, grades five through eight, promotes social and intellectual growth with an academic program that includes science, humanities, math, physical education, the arts, Spanish, and speech and debate. Every fifth and sixth grader learns to play a wind and string instrument and performs in concerts for the community. In 2016, the Middle School math team (the Quantifyin' Lions) won the Brooklyn MathCounts competition and the Middle and Upper School speech & debate teams won any awards at the state and local level.
In the Upper School, grades nine through twelve, academic programs include English, science, math, history, computer science, the arts, world language, and speech and debate. Additionally, the Upper School has partnerships with NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, which provides engineering classes for Berkeley Carroll students, and Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, which offers students online Mandarin and Arabic courses. Research and independent courses include a selective three-year Science Research and Design program, a two-week Spring Intensives program, and a Senior Scholars program. The Upper School also offers academic travel programs to France, Africa, India, and Spain. Every senior gives a speech to the entire Upper School, a long-standing Berkeley Carroll Tradition.
Many students are also involved in varsity and JV athletic teams, student government, orchestra, choir, jazz, student clubs, and affinity groups.
Berkeley Carroll has an athletic center at its President Street location. The facility has a four-lane, 75-foot (23 m) long swimming pool, a full-size gymnasium, a mezzanine area for fitness and strength training, and an open rooftop playground.
Including alumni of The Berkeley Institute and Carroll Street School, Berkeley Carroll School has over 2,000 alumni.
Over the summer, Berkeley Carroll offers two summer camp programs: The Children's Day Camp (for ages 3 to 8) located at Carroll Street, and the Creative Arts Program (for older children and teenagers) at Lincoln Place.
In December 2006, given the "brownstone-Brooklyn baby boom", Berkeley Carroll experienced an unprecedented overload of preschool applicants. This led the school to stop accepting applications early, much to the dismay of parents, as reported in New York magazine.
A New York Sun article on January 31, 2008, noted that the "amped-up academic program at the artist-chic Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has been expanding the school's family base: Not just brownstoners, but many Manhattanites now attend. Still, the school's parent base is heavily drawn from the publishing world, and the editor-novelist crowd affects the school. After tenth-graders read "Motherless Brooklyn," author Jonathan Lethem came in to lead some classes on it. A Writers in Residence program has included Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri."
An honor code was implemented in the Upper School at the start of the 2007-2008 academic year. In 2013, the school implemented free bus service to students who live in all boroughs of NYC.
In 2011, the school bought 152 Sterling Place from the First Church of Christ Scientist, Brooklyn for $3.8 million. The church continues to hold services in the building and is now home to the school's 300-seat Marlene Clary Performance Space, which was finished in 2016.
Athletics
The school is a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association. The 2006-2007 girls varsity basketball team beat Dwight to become the champions of the ACIS (Athletic Conference of Independent Schools) league. On May 20, 2009, Berkeley Carroll won its first NYSAISAA baseball title, beating defending state champion Poly Prep 4-1.
Recognition
In 2016, New York Magazine called Berkeley Carroll "the Harvard of Brooklyn's K-12 institutions."
Berkeley Carroll’s STEAM initiative and focus on the role of technology in education has received national attention. In 2016, Mashable called its visit to a sixth grade coding class “a riveting experience” and in 2014, the New York Times quoted Middle School Director Jim Shapiro on helping students unplug occasionally.
The GRAMMY Foundation chose Berkeley Carroll Arts Director, Peter Holsberg, as the only NYC semifinalist for its 2016 Music Educator Award.
Berkeley Carroll was named a School of the Future by the National Association of Independent Schools in 2012.