M.S. 51 William Alexander, Brooklyn | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I have two daughters, one who graduated in 2012 and another who will complete her studies there in 2015. We all had high hopes and expectations going in having heard that the academics there were sound and challenging. However, after five collective years our disappointments while few were bitter and long lasting.

I’m sure everyone can recall at least one bad teacher they had in their past but MS 51 has more than its fair share. Without a doubt, the majority of their teachers are effective and inspiring educators. But a handful there are truly bad: disrespectful to the students, uncommunicative to the parents, unknowledgeable in their respective subject areas (recognizably so…to the point where students were correcting them in class and tests with answers incorrectly marked right and wrong). We had to hire tutors to educate our daughters, both of whom were Honor Roll students with A averages, in some of the classes where their teachers were wholly ineffective. The most painful experience came with their math teacher, Mr. Arroyo. Any parent of a child who has attended his class can attest to his erratic behavior. He is frighteningly trigger happy at punishing children for the slightest perceived infractions and has served months-long detentions (yes, plural months) to several students. If the children stick up for themselves he compounds their punishments for talking back. He also rarely returned graded tests so even though they received a numerical grade for each, the children never knew what areas they needed to work on. And since math is a cumulatively taught subject, we found that unacceptable. At one point over three dozen parents joined an email chain complaining about this man. Finally, they met with the principal, Lenore Berner, and… nothing changed. Requests for her to follow up with parents went unanswered and the teacher’s behavior continued as before.

If the principal were more responsive to the parents’ concerns about issues affecting their children I’d be happy to articulate all of the things I like about the school — their many wonderful teachers, the specialty classes they offer including drama, choir, photography, etc, the freedom and responsibility they afford the students by letting them out of school during the lunch period. But sadly a few bad apples and one unresponsive principal greatly tarnished our overall opinion of this school. It will be hard for you and your child not to encounter at least one of these teachers during his or her three years there. Hopefully the negative impact they have on your child’s experience will not be as lasting as ours.

UPDATE:

I just received this email on 5.30.14 from a parent regarding Mr Arroyo, the teacher I singled out in my review. It is the most recent note in a long chain comprised of similar content.

“Our daughter, ……, is also in 707 and she’s also not sure what’s on the upcoming test. She said Arroyo ofthen doesn’t tell them to fold down particular pages. It seems that none of the kids get a clear answer when they ask what to study. It really seems that he doesn’t want to help them do well. It seems to me that every time Ms. Berner speaks to him, he’ll do something to appease us, but then do something else to frustrate and anger us.
I’d like to get a consensus of what we should do next. Should we all get together as a group to discuss? Should we meet again with Ms. Berner? Should we escalate to the District level? What results do we want to achieve? What can we expect to achieve in the next few weeks? How can we help the kids do well on the next test and the final?
Please, everyone – give this some thought and send your feedback.
Thanks.”

Its a pretty good school up to 8th grade, Ms Catapano is the best! Anyway i really liked this school in 6th grade and 7th grade and had a lot of fun a learned quite a lot, but it the past year as i went into 8th grade it changed. I know that teachers are preparing us for high school but their taking it too far, also the school has a major social problem and a few kids have been doing some really sums stuff, besides that this is a pretty good school (one of the best) with an amazing talent department just don’t go to any advanced class’s unless you like tons of assignments, only the science department needs a little readjusting.

BTW Mr Arroyo is not a BAD teacher he’s pretty lit has a bad hairline and is up to date on pop culture, he’s only mean in 7th.

EDIT: IMO best teachers are all the Social Studies teachers, Mr NG Mr Arroyo Ms Arroyo and most ELA teachers.

Hands down, This school is the best middle school ever. They have amazing academics programs where in 6th grade we are already learning about statistics in math! Science is amazing and actually REALLY FUN, ELA is also exceptional, with lots of entertaining courses, and we do creative writing in any genre we like. Social studies is also great, and Ms Catapano is hilarious. The ARTS program is absolutely amazing, and it couldn’t be better. A big shout-out to the drama team because Theatre is amazing in this school (along with art, music, dance and vocal). So, I HIGHLY recommend this school.