Filed Under > NYC Schools
Charter School Founded by Klingenstein Grads Opens in Brooklyn
On Wednesday, September 23, an impressive cast of New York City public school officials and politicians assembled in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to cut the ribbon on a new building that will house three new schools-including a charter school founded by two alumni of TC's Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership.
The other two schools are Sunset Park High School and the Lillian L. Rashkis Program. On hand for the ribbon cutting were NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Councilwoman Sarah Gonzalez, and State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz. Pearl Kane, Director of the Klingenstein Center and a board member of Brooklyn Prospect Charter, also attended the event.
That school, Brooklyn Prospect Charter, in Brooklyn's Community School District 15, will ultimately be a middle and high school (it is starting with the sixth grade this year), and will include a large percentage of low-income and minority students. It will offer every student the option to take the International Baccalaureate Middle Years and Upper Level Diploma programs, an accelerated course of studies similar to Advanced Placement. "The ability to communicate effectively is perhaps the most crucial aspect of today's students' education, and BP will challenge students to bring their academic investigations into the light of the world by emphasizing project-based learning," the school's Web site proclaims.
The co-founders are former Klingenstein master's degree students Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein, who serves as the school's executive director, and Luyen Chou, the chief product officer for SchoolNet, which makes data-driven education software to improve student achievement, teacher quality and school efficiency. Rubenstein is a former administrator at Manhattan's Collegiate School and a recipient of the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching. He is currently completing a doctorate in Education Leadership at TC. Chou was previously Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Learning and Teaching, and the Associate Head of The School at Columbia University, an independent K-8 laboratory school.
Several other TC-Klingenstein Center alums are closely involved with Brooklyn Prospect Charter, including Candice Olsen, Co-founder and former Chief Executive of i-Village.com, who serves on the school's board with Kane, and two teachers at the school, Carolyn Michael and Craig Cetrullo.
Published Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009
