Published on May 14, 2025 1:02 PM GMT
I thought I'd give a shout out to my son’s school, Achievement Unlocked https://achievementunlocked.org/ in Brooklyn NY, which is currently recruiting for the next school year. It is a twice-exceptional school for gifted neurodivergent children and it is founded by a rationalist, Brendan Wolff. It has comments on the wall like, "The map is not the territory,' and "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by ignorance." I figure there may be others on this site seeking something like this.
I’ve found the school is an emotionally safe place and provides scaffolding and support for learning without oppressing or pressuring the kids. There’s a lot of personalization and one-on-one attention.
They’re having an open house and tour on May 21st at 5pm for those interested, and Brendan Wolff, who founded the school is always happy to talk about it. And of course if you have more specific questions about my experience you can contact me directly.
This is what another parent wrote about it:
"Achievement Unlocked (AU) is a small private school in Brooklyn that serves students in 1st-8th grade that have struggled in other schools. AU has a neurodiversity positive environment, reflecting that many but not all students are neurodiverse. AU is not a school that turns kids away who have had behavior issues nor is there any specific diagnosis that they are looking for. They really seek to serve students for whom other schools, both public and private and often both, have not worked. It is so worth scheduling a conversation with them if you are interested but unsure your child would fit there.
There are a max of 25 students. Classes are currently 5 students or less with a max of 6 students at any time. It seems to me there are 2 to 3 teachers/specialists present in every class/subject. My son has differentiated groups - he studies with the youngest kids in ELA and with older kids in math and even within these groups the work is individualized. We get daily report cards showing how he did with academics and behavior in each subject. Also, in addition to their regular academic classes every student takes Independent Study and gets to work on projects of interest that help them stretch their skills and experience and has a choice of many enrichment classes.
Social skills and support is scaffolded through the whole experience - for example, each student works on a self-skill plan in which they pick a skill to develop and negotiate with teachers and staff how to have that skill supported. This can be something they want to develop or something they want to be able to do. The school uses the Collaborative Problem Solving model proactively to do this. They help students proactively figure out how to make something happen and solve problems. Another example is they also have a system in which students are always earning chances to make "reasonable," (easy to earn), "less reasonable" (harder to earn) and "unreasonable" (very hard to earn) requests. A reasonable request might be staying indoors for recess or spending 5 minutes in the quiet room. An unreasonable request might be "the whole school doesn't get homework for a day." Students earn these by doing well, helping others, and accomplishing tasks. To earn an "unreasonable request." students have to do something quite challenging like memorizing the periodic table or beating the school director at chess. This way students are constantly learning about advocating for themselves and what is reasonable to request. My son LOVES this system. Homeroom teachers also regularly help support and prime students for social interactions and choices they might make throughout the day. For example, my son's homeroom teacher always thinks with them about what they want to do at recess and how they can accomplish it, which has really helped him.
Finally, the staff is tremendous! The school founder is an amazing role model, an active participant in developing each child's plan and experience, and the leader for developing the systems and atmosphere of the school. He ensures the school uses research-based approaches and collects a lot of data about how the kids are doing, like how many times they ask for a break and their daily behavior and academic scores. The classroom teachers, related service providers, and support staff and the admin team are also dynamic, talented, and caring.
In parent meetings recently, it struck me that as parents talk about the school, the most common phrase I hear is "no matter what" - for example, "AU will support your child no matter what," "AU staff will welcome your child with open arms, no matter what happened the day before," and "AU staff will never be disrespectful or mean to [parents], no matter what." I have never before encountered a school before that actualized the principle of unconditional positive regard as a whole organization - but AU definitely does."
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