Beginning with Children Foundation, Inc.

BwCF was conceived in 1989 by Joseph and Carol Reich with a clear goal: to effect positive change in the public school system through the staunch belief that all children can learn. The Reichs set about creating an innovative new public school, designed to nurture academic achievement and individual growth by addressing the needs of the whole child. In 1992, the Beginning with Children School, a public elementary school independent of local district control, opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. BwCF created a school within the confines of public school regulation which offers the the quality of a private school education to low-income inner-city children. We believed we would succeed because we would incorporate concepts and strategies that for the most part were an anathema to the public system-- performance and fiscal accountability, ongoing student assessment, and self-evaluation and reflection. The success of BwCF's public/private partnership has served as a model of public school reform in NYC. Based on the BwC model, BwCF opened the Community Partnership Charter School in September 2000. In 2001, Beginning with Children School was asked to convert to charter status, and has continued to serve as a model independent public school. More than 1,000 students have benefited from the schools' unique learning environment, where personalized attention, dynamic teaching strategies, and analytical assessment help students master a rigorous academic curriculum and develop a lifelong love of learning. The success of the schools' strategic approach is validated by results on city and state standardized tests, in which BwCF students consistently outperform both neighboring schools and schools city and statewide.