Brooklyn Latin School

Brooklyn Latin School

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Brooklyn Latin School is ranked 3rd within New York. Students have the opportunity to take International Baccalaureate course work and exams. The IB participation rate at Brooklyn Latin School is 97 percent. The student body makeup is 55 percent male and 45 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 85 percent. Brooklyn Latin School is 1 of 405 high schools in the New York City Public Schools.

The Brooklyn Latin School began with the realization that an education is essential for our country to retain its role as a world leader. As part of his effort to reform public education, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced in 2005 the creation of seven new selective high schools. To oversee the creation of the first of these new schools, Mayor Bloomberg selected John Elwell, President of Replications, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that replicates successful school models around the country. Elwell began a search for the model that would fit New York’s newest specialized high school.

A lifelong educator, Elwell had long been impressed by the academic discipline and intellectualism of Boston Latin graduates, who talk lovingly of their school long after leaving it. Though he conducted a national search, his quickly realized that Boston Latin’s emphasis on academic excellence and social responsibility was perfectly suited to his vision.

In the winter of 2006, Elwell selected Jason Griffiths as the first Head Master of the new Brooklyn Latin School. A product of Pennsylvania parochial school who played football at Princeton University before becoming a teacher, Griffiths shared Elwell’s belief in a strong school culture and disciplined learning environment. Upon his completion of New Leaders for New Schools, a leadership training program for aspiring principals, Griffiths took the reigns of the nascent Brooklyn Latin School as its first Head Master.

During the next six months, Griffiths flew between Boston and New York on a weekly basis. While interviewing hundreds of applicants for teaching jobs and trying to secure a physical plant for his school, Griffiths spent the majority of his time identifying those features of the Boston Latin School’s culture he felt were most responsible for its outstanding performance. “Clearly to me, the strength of the Boston Latin School is its strong tradition of excellence,” Griffiths says, recollecting those hectic first months. Confident that he could bring the tradition of Boston Latin to Brooklyn, he also traveled to over fifty middle schools in search of students.

In the fall of 2006, after arduous months of preparation, The Brooklyn Latin School opened its doors to 63 students who represented every borough of New York City, and countries as diverse as Poland, Nigeria and Israel. Moreover, Griffiths had recruited an energetic and capable staff whose experience in education, the private sector and public sphere had prepared them for the challenges of starting a new school.

The Brooklyn Latin School is a thriving educational community, home to hundreds of students who on a daily basis validate the vision of its founders. And every February, the students of The Brooklyn Latin School brave the blistering New England cold and venture to Avenue Louis Pasteur in Boston. Sitting in the Boston Latin auditorium, surrounded by portraits of the great men and women who’ve walked its hallways, they are reminded that though their own school may be new, they are in fact part of a tradition that is nearly 400 years old.