Equal Opportunity Schools Honors Two Brooklyn Public Schools for Successfully Increasing Equity & BIPOC Student Access to AP Courses

Out of the three schools city-wide that received EOS' top annual "Equity Awards" honors, two were from Brooklyn. 

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS), a leading non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring equitable access to advanced academic opportunities for all students, is celebrating a number of New York City schools for their commitment to increasing access to advanced courses among historically underrepresented students, and two of the highest awarded schools are in Brooklyn.

EOS' "Equity Champions Awards" celebrates the exemplary dedication and efforts of school leaders who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion within their educational institutions. Additionally, it recognizes leaders who have guided the implementation of high-impact strategies across institutions, collaborated on best practices, collected and analyzed data, identified necessary work to continue to close the persistent gaps, and gone above and beyond to create environments where every student feels valued, respected, and empowered to succeed regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances.

This year's Equity Champions include the Brooklyn School for Social Justice and Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School, also in Brooklyn, along with the John Bowne High School in Queens, for showing a sustained commitment to increasing access to advanced courses for historically underrepresented students. This, by increasing advanced courses offerings, participation in AP courses, and awareness around student belonging.

Also honored at the fourth annual EOS-NYC Convening & AP for All Teacher Leader End of the Year Celebration at Manhattan's Civic Hall were a handful of other schools from across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Held in conjunction with the AP For All EOY Celebration, the Convening is meant to help build community by highlighting and celebrating the unique ways partnering schools have increased access to advanced courses and enhanced support for underserved and underrepresented students. The AP for All initiative – part of New York City's Equity and Excellence agenda – brings new AP courses to schools that offer few or no AP courses. Those schools then receive rigorous training for new and continuing AP teachers.

"At EOS, we measure student's readiness for advanced placement courses through 7 different learning mindsets," explains Yolanda Burnette, PhD, Senior Program Director, NYC. "Grit, focus, community leadership, growth mindset, academic identity, belonging, and purpose for learning. These mindsets are reflected on each Student Insight Card," she explains.

Schools scoring high marks across these seven different learning mindsets were as follows:

Manhattan

• The Esperanza Preparatory Academy won the Grit Award for, despite its small size managing to have 7 AP courses available, including AP Spanish Language + AP Spanish Lit, for its predominantly Latinx student population
• The High School For Excellence and Innovation won the Belonging Award for, when after being presented with their Cues and Conditions of Belonging report this year, having increased its Classroom Community belonging average to 95%, and setting an additional goal of achieving 100% the next time around through a series of workshops it has planned

Queens

• The Rockaway Collegiate High School won the Focus Award for, with less than a month's notice, minimal funds, and a healthy dose of determination, hosted a multi-day field trip to Maryland so students were able to tour Coppin State and Howard University
• The Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School won the Growth Mindset Award for going from 60% AP participation to 100% for all students in 9th—12th grades for the past three years and counting.

Brooklyn

• The Brooklyn Preparatory High School won the Community Leadership Award for doing everything from presenting about AP African American Studies at The College Board's A Dream Deferred Conference this year to using Student Ambassadors to recruit students into AP courses.
• The Academy for Health Careers won the Academic Identity Award for showing great promise in its first year of partnership with EOS
• The John Dewey High School won the Purpose for Learning Award for, among others, hosting 6 Academic academies, 60+ school clubs, and an extensive after school tutoring and reassessment program, all designed to help their students connect with their future aspirations

To learn more about EOS' work or to partner with EOS, please visit here.

About Equal Opportunity Schools:
Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that students of all backgrounds have equitable access to advanced academic opportunities. By partnering with schools and districts across the United States, EOS works to identify and support underrepresented students who have the potential to succeed in challenging coursework, fostering a culture of excellence and inclusivity within educational communities. Learn more at www.eoschools.org.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Tomika Anderson
Publicist
Equal Opportunity Schools
[email protected]
646-387-1865

SOURCE Equal Opportunity Schools