News

Ascend's role in an ambitious neighborhood redevelopment project attracted the attention of Ginia Bellafante in a recent column in The New York Times. In an article published January 14, 2012, Bellafante describes efforts underway to refurbish the "fabled Loew's Pitkin Theater" at the heart of the Brownsville neighborhood.

Grades K-8 of Brownsville Ascend Charter School will occupy the upper floors of the historic theater building and offer a free, college-prepa… Read more

Ascend faculty and scholars welcomed a distinguished visitor Friday, former Nebraska Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey.  Senator Kerrey began his visit at the rousing morning meeting of the Bushwick Ascend Charter School before heading to the Lower Schools of Brownsville Ascend and Brooklyn Ascend Charter Schools. He ended his visit at the new Brooklyn Ascend Middle School.  Kerrey, who has long worked to raise national reading and writing standards, was d… Read more

Fifth-graders at Brooklyn Ascend Middle School got some expert advice this week as they welcomed Michael Thomas to their classroom. The first in a planned series of visiting writers, Thomas is the author of Man Gone Down, winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, A Public Space, and the anthology The Book of Dads. He teaches at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn. His second book, The Broken… Read more

On December 1, 2011, Steven F. Wilson, president of Ascend Learning, will be among the presenters at a conference in Washington, DC, entitled “Rethinking Education Governance for the 21st Century.” Cosponsored by the Center for American Progress and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the event will examine how longstanding school governance structures and power relationships obstruct school improvement—and how these structures could be radically recast. "Wha… Read more

The State University of New York Board of Trustees announced yesterday that it has approved the proposal to establish Canarsie Ascend Charter School in Brooklyn. Slated to open in 2012, the new school will be the fourth in the Ascend Learning network. It is the first Ascend school to be authorized by SUNY. “I had the opportunity to meet the lead applicant and prospective board of trustees for this school,” said Dr. Pedro Noguera, SUNY Trustee and Chair of the … Read more

An independent survey commissioned by the New York City Department of Education has found consistently high levels of parent satisfaction across Ascend’s three schools.

At least 97 percent of respondents at each school indicated they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that

- My child is learning what he or she needs to know to succeed in later grades or after graduating from high school

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Ascend Learning announced last week the hiring of Eunice Chao as director of Brooklyn Ascend Middle School, the first middle school in the Ascend network. The school will open with grade 5 in September and will expand by a grade per year through grade 8, offering a rigorous college-preparatory program with a strong emphasis on the humanities and sciences. Ms. Chao recently completed the prestigious Aspiring Principals program at New Leaders for New Schools, where she completed… Read more

Construction is nearly finished at Brooklyn Ascend Charter School’s flagship middle school. The new, 46,000-square-foot facility is located at 123 East 98th Street in Brownsville, just three blocks from the school’s lower-school campus. Spanning four, brightly lit floors, the custom-designed facility includes generously sized classrooms, dedicated… Read more

Beginning next fall, students at Ascend's first middle school will participate in an uncommonly ambitious course of study in the humanities, modeled on the practices of New York City's finest private schools.

Designed to foster each student's reading sensibility and individual voice, students will engage in close readings of literature from diverse cultures. Many selected works will connect thematically to museum-quality reproductions of great works of art that will … Read more

Brownsville Ascend Charter School ended its inaugural year with a firm vote of confidence from its parents. Seventy-three percent of parents and guardians of children enrolled at the school participated in the New York City Department of Education’s (NYCDOE) 2009-2010 School Survey, and all said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the education their children received. The school also earned high marks for the quality and frequency of parent communications, order and … Read more

For the second year running, Brooklyn Ascend Charter School earned top marks from parents and teachers for the quality of education provided at the new college preparatory school, which served 249 students in K-3 last year. The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) reported the results of its 2009-2010 School Survey in June. Virtually all of the parents who participated in the independent survey said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the education their c… Read more

The students and staff of Brownsville Ascend Charter School will celebrate tomorrow the start of a much anticipated redevelopment project that will enable them to move from their temporary location to the site of the former Loews Pitkin Theater—re-imagined and completely revitalized—in the heart of Community School District 23. Through the ambitious adaptive re-use project, POKO Partners, LLC will transform the historic building to accommodate the new charter school and ma… Read more

The New York State Board of Regents voted today to grant a five-year charter to the Bushwick Ascend Charter School. The school is the third college preparatory charter school developed and managed by Ascend Learning, a non-profit charter school management organization based in Brooklyn. The school's founding team submitted an application to the New York City Department of Education on October 5, 2009. After an extensive review process, the Department approved the schoo… Read more

The New York City Department of Education today approved the Bushwick Ascend Charter School, the third in Ascend Learning's network of college preparatory charter schools. The decision came after the Department's comprehensive review of the application for the new school. This review included a rigorous analysis of the proposed school’s education program, business plan, and governance structure by a panel of Department staff and outside experts. Chancellor Joel Klein has… Read more

The Brownsville Ascend Charter School welcomed more than 150 enthusiastic kindergartners and first-graders this morning as it kicked off the 2009-2010 school year. School Director Keli Swearingen captured the mindset of her faculty and staff as they took stock of their successful launch and looked toward the weeks and months ahead: “It’s all about our students. We know it. They know it, and their families know it. And our commitment on Day 1001 will be just as firm as on D… Read more

The Brooklyn Ascend Charter School reported strong gains in student performance on the TerraNova, a national standardized test of reading and math. The new school, where 82 percent of students are from low-income families, administered the exam to first- and second-grade students in the fall and to all students again in June. Over the course of their first year at the new school, first-graders rose from the 21st percentile in reading in the fall (79 percent of their peers were… Read more

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) reported today the results of its 2008-2009 School Survey, revealing a high level of satisfaction among parents and teachers at the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School (BACS). All of the 138 parents who responded to the department’s survey said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the education their children received during the school’s inaugural year. The school also earned high marks… Read more

Teachers and students at Ascend Learning’s flagship school, the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School, have long known that something exciting has been afoot--or more precisely, overhead. Construction workers have been busily transforming the fourth and fifth floors of their building at 205 Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn to accommodate Ascend’s second school, the Brownsville Ascend Charter School, during its incubation period. The construction is nearly complete, two months prior t… Read more

Ascend Learning said today that Keisha Sykes will serve as school director of the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School beginning next month, succeeding Nikki Khosla, the school’s founding director. Ms. Sykes is a second grade teacher at the school and a key member of the founding faculty. “I am delighted that Keisha will lead the school in its second year,” said Steven Wilson, Ascend’s president. “Her teaching has exemplified our philosophy of high acad… Read more

The Board of Trustees of the Brownsville Ascend Charter School has appointed Keli Swearingen, Ph.D., as School Director of Ascend Learning’s second school, the Brownsville Ascend Charter School.  Swearingen will head a three-person leadership team, including Dellianna Burrows, Dean of Instruction, and Jocelyn Trigg, Director of Operations. “We are thrilled to have these three outstanding professionals at the helm of the Brownsville Ascend Charter School,&rdquo… Read more

The Brownsville Ascend Charter School conducted its student enrollment lottery today, selecting the 123 kindergarten and first-grade students who will attend the school when its doors open this fall. Hundreds of excited children and parents gathered for the event at Brownsville Ascend’s sister school, the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School, to hear firsthand whether they were among the lucky lottery winners. Cheers resounded as names were drawn to fill the slots for 69 kinde… Read more

The New York State Board of Regents voted today to grant a charter for a period of five years to Ascend's second school, the Brownsville Ascend Charter School. The new school, set to open this fall in the Brownsville community of Brooklyn, was one of nine new schools approved by the New York City Department of Education. An application to open the new public school was submitted to the Department of Education on September 8. After a rigorous review process, Chancellor … Read more

Ninety-nine percent of the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School's parents attended conferences with their children's teachers, the school reported today. The conferences coincided with the completion of the school's first term and the issuance of report cards. Parents received a detailed and--in a departure from the practice of most schools--entirely objective assessment of their students' progress in the SABIS® academic program. Parents voiced their enthusiastic support… Read more

New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein today approved the proposal for the Brownsville Ascend Charter School, a new K-12 public school and the second launched by Ascend Learning in New York City. The decision marked the end of a rigorous review process by the city’s Department of Education. The review included a detailed analysis of the proposed school’s education program, business plan, and governance structure by a panel of charter school experts from within… Read more

Daily attendance has averaged 98 percent of enrolled students at Brooklyn Ascend Charter School, the school reported today.

“We are very pleased with this early result,” said Dean of Students Amy Heberling. “We know that attendance and achievement are strongly correlated, and new research highlights the previously underestimated effects of elementary absenteeism. We are off to a strong start, but we can and must do still better.” Read more

The waiting list for seats at the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School hit 1,000 today.

Currently, the new school enrolls 210 students in kindergarten through grade two.

Parents continue to add the names of their children to the list, citing the school’s “No Excuses” structured environment, rigorous academic program, and high expectations. Read more

The New York Times featured Brooklyn Ascend student Bodrye Kamden on page 1 today, in a story on the first day of school for New York City school children. Reporter Elissa Gootman opened the story in second grade teacher Keisha Sykes’s class: “On the first day of school—ever—at Brooklyn Ascend Charter School, nothing in Keisha Sykes’s second-grade classroom was left to chance. Not the way students were to greet their teacher (with eye cont… Read more

School director Nikki Khosla personally welcomed every student with a handshake today, the first day of school at the new Brooklyn Ascend Charter School. The college preparatory school’s first 210 students, each in uniform, were warmly greeted by their teachers, whose classrooms bear the name of their alma mater. Posters in the lobby welcomed the classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025, the years of their anticipated college graduation. The newly completed building featu… Read more

New York City school chancellor Joel Klein met informally with the faculty of Brooklyn Ascend Charter School today, in the final days of the school’s three-week Summer Institute for faculty. Over breakfast at the school’s newly completed facility, the chancellor and founding faculty members engaged in a lively and candid conversation spanning the promise of No Excuses schooling, his enthusiasm for charter schools, and his reform strategy for the city. Klein… Read more

The Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) awarded a second facility grant, of $350,000, to Brooklyn Ascend Charter School today. The grant was awarded under the State Stimulus Fund, which authorizes SUNY to award discretionary grants to charter schools for costs associated with the acquisition, renovation, or construction of charter school facilities.

The award, the largest permitted under the competitive grants program, comes after an earlier grant in the … Read more

An intensive three-week training program today began today for the founding faculty of Brooklyn Ascend Charter School. The Summer Institute’s curriculum will span Ascend’s mission, core values, classroom management, building the No Excuses school culture, lesson planning, the SABIS educational system, “point and prefect” instruction, team meetings, classroom procedures, and much more. The sessions, from 7:30 am until 5:00 pm each day, will inclu… Read more

Brooklyn Ascend Charter School is the recipient of a major start-up grant from the Achelis Foundation of New York. The Achelis and Bodman Foundations are influential supporters of top charter schools in the city. The Foundations calls the failure of inner-city public education a national tragedy, with consequences not only for the children left behind, but also for the rest of society. The two strategies for the improvement of urban education, the Foundations believe, are acco… Read more

More than 700 parents have already applied on behalf of their children for Brooklyn Ascend Charter School since the school began accepting applications three weeks ago. On April 30, 189 students beginning kindergarten, first, or second grade this September will be randomly chosen from the applications at a public lottery to be held at the school's East 98th Street planning office, near the school site. "We are delighted by the interest the community has shown in the ne… Read more

As dean, of instruction Brandon Sorlie shall oversee academic operations at the school, coach and develop the teaching staff, and ensure the accurate implementation of the Ascend Learning school design.

As a Teach For America corps member, Brandon taught fifth grade at P.S. 42 Claremont Community School in the Bronx. After completing his two-year assignment teaching the fifth grade, Brandon remained at the school to help craft and implement an array of data-driven, collab… Read more

Completing a six month siting process by Ascend Learning, the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School has signed a fifteen-year lease with Midyan Gate Realty LLC for 205 Rockaway Parkway, a newly constructed, six-floor building at the corner of Clarkson Avenue and Kings Highway, Brooklyn.

The facility will house the complete school, from kindergarten through twelfth grade, in five floors of the building and a newly constructed, connected upper school annex.  When completed, t… Read more

On March 11, 2008, the Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) awarded a $300,000 grant to the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School. The grant was awarded under the State Stimulus Fund, which authorizes SUNY to award discretionary grants to charter schools for costs associated with the acquisition, renovation, or construction of charter school facilities.  The award was the largest permitted under the competitive grants program.

The Brooklyn Ascend Char… Read more

Capping a nine-month review process, the New York State Board of Regents voted to grant a charter for a period of five years to Brooklyn Ascend Charter School.  The new school, set to open this fall in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville community of Brooklyn, was one of nine new schools approved by the New York City Department of Education.

A preliminary application to open the new public school was submitted to the Department of Education on June 1, 2007, and a final applic… Read more

Steven F. Wilson, founder of the non-profit charter school management organization Ascend Learning, Inc. recently signed a licensing agreement with SABIS Educational Systems, Inc., a global education management company that develops and operates K-12 schools in 14 countries around the world.

SABIS and Wilson initiated discussions about the joint venture following the 2006 publication of Wilson's book on privately managed public schools, Learning on the Job (Harv… Read more

On October 11, 2007, New York City schools commissioner Joel Klein approved the proposal for Brooklyn Ascend Charter School, a new K–12 public school operating under charter from the state. The decision marked the end of a rigorous, four-month review by the city's Department of Education. The department's review included a detailed analysis of the proposed school's educational program, business plan, and governance structure by a panel of charter school experts from with… Read more