Established

Type

Public, Specialized

Location

29 Fort Greene Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217,
New York City, New York, United States

District

13

Oversight

New York City Department of Education

Colors

Blue and White

Mascot

Engineers

Yearbook

The Blueprint

Newspaper

The Survey

Website

www.bths.edu

History of Tech

The Idea of Tech

Original Plan

In 1918, Dr. Albert L. Colston, chair of the Math Department at Manual Training High School, recommended establishing a technical high school for Brooklyn boys. His plan envisioned a heavy concentration of math, science, and drafting courses with parallel paths leading either to college or to a technical career in industry. By 1922, Dr. Colston's concept was approved by the Board of Education, and Brooklyn Technical High School opened in a converted warehouse at 49 Flatbush Avenue Extension, with 2,400 students. This location, in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, is the reason the school seal bears that bridge's image, rather than the more obvious symbol for the borough, the Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn Tech would occupy one more location before settling into its site at 29 Fort Greene Place, for which the groundbreaking was held in 1930.

Brooklyn Bridge                                            Both Bridges                                               Manhattan Bridge

Early Success

The success of the program was immediately evident. Opening with more than 2,400 students, classes soon had to be expanded to several annex buildings located on Bridge Street, Kosciusko Street and Ryerson Street (PS 5, 69 and 74). With the demand for technical education growing and the implementation of Dr. Colston's curriculum a proven success, plans were made for a large, new building to house BTHS. After approval in 1927 by the Board of Education, land was purchased and on September 17, 1930, ground was broken by Mayor Jimmy Walker at 29 Fort Greene Place . The $6 million building was ready for partial occupancy in the fall of 1933. Although the original building and some of the annexes remained in use for a number of years, the electrical course and 800 freshman boys were the first occupants of the present building, the jewel of the New York City high school system.

The hallmark of the education program developed by Dr. Colston was a curriculum that consisted of two years of general studies with a technical and mechanical emphasis followed by two years of specialization in one of several career-oriented majors.

Majors in 1933 were Technical College Prep, Architecture and Building Construction, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, and Structural engineering.

Early Years

Atypical for American high schools, Brooklyn Tech uses a system of college-style majors. The curriculum consists of two years of general studies with a technical and engineering emphasis, followed by two years of a student-chosen major.

The curriculum remained largely unchanged until the end of Dr. Colston's 20-year term as principal in 1942. Upon his retirement, Tech was led briefly by acting Principal Ralph Breiling, who was succeeded by Principal Harold Taylor in 1944. Tech's modernization would come under Principal William Pabst, who assumed stewardship in 1946 after serving as chair of the Electrical Department. Pabst created new majors and refined older ones, allowing students to select science and engineering preparatory majors including Aeronautical, Architecture, Chemical, Civil, Electrical (later including Electronics and Broadcast), Industrial Design, Mechanical, Structural, and Arts and Sciences. A general College Preparatory curriculum would be added later.

Principal Pabst retired in 1964. A railroad club was established by the late Vincent Gorman, a social studies teacher, and students attended fan trips, tours of rail repair facilities and participated in the restoration of steam engine #103 and a historic rail passenger car at the former Empire State Railroad Museum. In August 1965, a ten-year-old boy named Carl Johnson drowned in the swimming pool at Brooklyn Tech while swimming with his day-camp group. The next year, more than 30 graduating Seniors in the school (including many student leaders) complained that Tech's curriculum was old and outdated. Their primary complaint was that the curriculum was geared toward the small minority of students who were not planning on attending college. In 1967 the schools of New York City got to view television in the classrooms for the first time, thanks to the station WNYE-TV, then located in the transmitter center on top of Brooklyn Tech.

For the school year beginning in the last half of 1970, females began attending; all three NYC specialized and test-required science high schools were now coeducational.

Incorporation into Specialized High School System and Later Years

In 1972, Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant High School, and High School for Performing Arts become incorporated by the New York State Legislature as specialized high schools of New York City. The act called for a uniform exam to be administered for admission to Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, and Stuyvesant. The exam would become known as the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) and tested students in math and English. With its statewide recognition, the school had to become co-educational.

In 1973, Tech celebrated its 50th anniversary with a dinner-dance at the Waldorf Astoria. To further commemorate the anniversary, a monument was erected, with a time capsule beneath it, in the north courtyard. The monument has eight panels, each with a unique design representing each of Tech's eight majors at that point.

Technological advances again changed Tech's character in 1976, with the school adding the Graphic Communications major, now commonly known as the "Media" major.

In 1983, Matt Mandery's appointment as principal made him the first Tech alumnus to hold that position. The following year, Tech received the Excellence in Education award from the U.S. Department of Education. The Alumni Association was formally created during this time, and coalitions were formed with the New York City Department of Transportation. Mandery oversaw the addition of a Bio-Medical major to the curriculum. John Tobin followed as principal in 1987 and abolished the Materials Science department and closing the seventh-floor foundry.

In the mid-1980s, a violent street gang known as the Decepticons was founded at Brooklyn Tech. As well, in 2000, the city issued a special report concerning the lack of notification to law enforcement during a string of robberies within the high school, including armed robbery with knives and stun guns.

John Tobin followed as principal in 1987. He oversaw the addition of a Bio-Medical major to the curriculum, while abolishing the Materials Science department and closing the 7th floor foundry.

The Brooklyn Tech Cheerleading Squad appeared in the 1988 Spike Lee film School Daze, and a video for the movie, entitled "Da Butt", was shot at Brooklyn Tech. Lee also used the first floor gymnasium as a shooting location for Jesus Shuttlesworth's, played by Ray Allen, Sportscenter preview in He Got Game.

Recent Years

In March 1998, an alumni group led by Leonard Riggio, class of 1958, announced plans for a fund-raising campaign to raise $10 million to support their alma mater financially through facilities upgrades, establishment of curriculum enhancements, faculty training, and a university-type endowment. The endowment fundraiser, the first of its kind for an American public school, received front-page attention in The New York Times and sparked a friendly competition amongst the specialized high schools, with both Bronx Science and Stuyvesant announcing their own $10 million campaigns within weeks of the Brooklyn Tech announcement. In November 2005, the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Association announced the completion of the fundraising phase of what they had termed the Campaign for Brooklyn Tech. In April 2008, the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation launched a second endowment campaign.

Since 2001, Brooklyn Tech has undergone such refurbishing as the renovation of the school's William L. Mack Library entrance, located on the fifth-floor center section. As well, two computer labs were added. The school also reinstated a class devoted to the study of Shakespeare, which students can elect to take in their senior year.

Lee McCaskill Controversy

Dr. Lee D. McCaskill, appointed principal in 1992, served for 14 years, during which Tech saw the installation of more computer classrooms and the switch from traditional mechanical drawing by hand to teaching the use of computer-aided design programs. McCaskill also presided over the elimination of long-standing hallmark academic concentrations at Tech such as aerospace engineering.

In 2000, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the NYC School District wrote a report condemning Brooklyn Technical High School administrators for failing to report several armed robberies that took place in the bathrooms and stairwells.

In 2003, The New York Times published an investigative article that noted "longstanding tensions" between the faculty and Principal McCaskill, "spilled into the open in October, with news reports that several teachers accused him of repeatedly sending sexually explicit e-mail messages from his school computer to staff members". The article described the principal as autocratic, controlling the school "largely through fear and intimidation", and documented acts of personal vindictiveness toward teachers; severe censorship of the student newspaper and of assigned English texts, including the refusal to let the Pulitzer Prize-finalist novel Continental Drift by Russell Banks be used for a class; and of bureaucratic mismanagement. The article also quoted praise from McCaskill's supervising superintendent, Reyes Irizarry, who cited the principal's expansion of music and sports programs.

A follow-up column in 2004 found the situation had worsened due to increased teacher exodus, and documented Principal McCaskill's campaign against Alice Alcala, described as one of the city's leading Shakespeare teachers. Alcala had won Brooklyn Tech a $10,000 grant and brought in the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain for student workshops. "When [McCaskill] tried killing her Shakespeare program", the Times wrote, "she went over his head to the central administration and got it reinstated. The day after she was quoted in news articles criticizing McCaskill, she received an unsatisfactory classroom observation rating for the first time in 28 years of teaching. She was repeatedly denied access to the auditorium and in June, got an unsatisfactory for the year." Alcala left for Manhattan's Murry Bergtraum High School, where she shortly thereafter brought in $1,800 in grants for Shakespeare education, while at Brooklyn Tech, the article reported, there was no longer any course solely devoted to Shakespeare.

2005 articles in the New York Daily News and New York Teacher note that a $10,000 grant obtained by Dr. Sylvia Weinberger in 2001 to refurbish the obsolete radio room remained unused. New classroom computers were covered in plastic rather than installed because the classrooms had yet to be wired for them.

The Office of Special Investigations of the New York City Department of Education launched an investigation of McCaskill on February 2, 2006, concerning unpaid enrollment of New Jersey resident McCaskill's daughter in New York City public school, which is illegal for non-residents of the city. On February 6, McCaskill announced his resignation from Brooklyn Tech and agreed to pay $19,441 in restitution. After retiring from Brooklyn Tech, McCaskill became principal of Hillside High School in New Jersey, where In 2013, he resigned following accusations he spanked a female student.

On February 7, 2006, the Department of Education named Randy Asher, founding principal of the High School for Math, Science and Engineering (HSMSE), as interim acting principal. Mr. Asher had previously served as Tech's assistant principal in mathematics from 2000-2002 before leaving to become founding principal of HSMSE.

Special commissioner Richard J. Condon rebuked the Department of Education a week later for allowing McCaskill to retire, still collecting $125,282 in accrued vacation time, just days before the OSI completed its investigation. Condon also recommended that Cathy Furman McCaskill, the principal's wife, be dismissed from her position as a teacher at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn for her part in submitting fake leases and other fraudulent documents to indicate the family lived in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. The next day, the Department of Education announced it would move to fire her.

Beyond the Curriculum

Extra-curricular activities were deemed important from Tech's earliest days, beginning with the publication of the school newspaper, The Survey, in 1922 and closely followed by the creation of The Science Bulletin, the first of many departmental publications. The Survey's Senior Number, the original combined yearbook and literary magazine, was replaced in 1933 by The Blueprint which has continued to this day as the Senior yearbook.

Other outlets for student activity soon developed. The S.O.S. (Service Squad), comprised of Tech students, patrolled the property and became a hallmark of order in the school for almost 60 years. The Student Government Organization, Longfellows, Arista and many other organizations prospered. Sports became an integral part of the Tech experience with baseball, football, tennis, cross-country track, ice hockey, swimming, basketball, bowling, riflery, fencing and soccer among the favorites. In 1939, WCNY changed its call letters to WNYE and, form the eighth floor studio atop Tech, the radio station pioneered educational broadcasting in New York City for the Board of Education. In 1941, an FM transmitter was added to the installation.

Of particular pride to Dr. Colston was the development and support of Works Project Administration (WPA) project #3149, the Tech foyer mural developed by artist Maxwell Starr. The mural's theme, The History of Mankind, traces developments from the Stone Age through the 1930s and portrays notable scientists and inventors. It remains the centerpiece of Tech's main lobby, in part thanks to its restoration in 1998 by the Alumni Association.

The War Years

The years during World Way II brought increased activity to Tech as many students rushed to graduate early and join the armed forces. Their letters home to Group Advisor Howard Garrett, many of which are in the Alumni Foundation archives, attest to the quality of their Tech education and its applicability to needed wartime skills.

During those years and for many years thereafter, Tech was also used extensively as an adult education night school to train people in technical skills. The Brooklyn Tech Evening High School provided many working men with a quality education.

Upon the retirement of Dr. Colston in 1942, Ralph Breiling was appointed acting principal by the Board of Education, to be succeeded by Acting Principal Harold Taylor in 1944. In January of 1946, Electrical Department Chairman William Pabst was selected as principal. The Pabst years, 1946 through 1964, were the most stable in the development of Tech as a school of excellence. Course selections were aeronautics, architecture, chemistry, electrical and electronics, industrial design, mechanical technology, structural technology, and technical college preparatory. Horizons, the school literary magazine, was added to the existing publications and has been produced every term since. Upon Dr. Pabst's retirement, Frank Stewart was appointed acting principal, serving until the permanent selection of Isidor Auerbach who was installed by then Mayor John Lindsay in the late 1966.

The Turbulent Years

The mid-1960s were a turbulent time for the country, the city and Technites. A transit strike, two teacher strikes, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam conflict and Woodstock brought protests and anxiety affecting Tech students as they did all other New Yorkers.

In nineteen seventy Tech underwent a major change when female students were admitted to Tech for the first time.  Two years later, Tech welcomed a new principal when Dr. Louis Weiss, former Chemistry Department Chairman and Acting Principal, was appointed. In the fall of that year, the Tech Players presented Guys and Dolls to rave reviews and established the tradition of an annual production. In recent years Technites have brought The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie and The Wizard of Oz to the great Tech auditorium.

Fiftieth (50th) Anniversary

Nineteen seventy-three marked the 50^th anniversary of Brooklyn Tech. To commemorate the occasion, a monument was erected in the North courtyard complete with a time capsule buried beneath it. The occasion was also marked by a gala 50^th Anniversary Dinner-Dance at the Waldorf Astoria.

The mid-1970s saw the addition of a graphics communication course and the introduction of student ID cards. In 1976, Acting Principal and Material Science Department Chairman Herbert Tucker was succeeded by Richard Brucato as principal. The following year saw the demise of the student handbook, first published in 1923. Because of Board of Education policy prohibiting schools from requiring students to purchase books, publication of the handbook was discontinued in 1978. In 1998, the alumni funded CARETECH program reintroduced the handbook planner as part of its freshman orientation.

By the early 1980s, the S.O.S. had been disbanded because it put students in potentially high-risk situations. In 1982, Al Zachter was assigned as acting principal to be succeeded in 1983 by Tech graduate Dr. Mathew M. Mandery, Class of 1961; the first and only alumnus to lead Tech. Under Dr. Mandery's leadership, the current Alumni Foundation was born and began its annual Homecoming and on-going support of Tech projects and activities. That same year, Tech received the Excellence in Education award for secondary schools from the U.S. Department of Education. The third principal of the decade was appointed in 1987 when John Tobin assumed the position. The late 1980s also saw the introduction of the Bio-Med course as a major, changes in course offerings, including closing the Materials Science Department, and the eventual closing of the Foundry.

Tech Today

Leaving in January 1992, Mr. Tobin was succeeded by Assistant Principal Dr. Lee D. McCaskill, who served as principal until February 2006. In March 2006, Randy J. Asher was appointed as principal.

Tech Student Snapshot:

• Today, approximately 4200 students call Tech home.
  
• In any given year, approximately 99% of Tech graduates go on to 4-year or 2-year colleges and 1% enter the workforce or the military.
  
• Recent senior classes average more than $40 million in offered scholarships.
  
• The student body is economically, ethnically and racially diverse, and students from all five New York City boroughs are enrolled.

Tech Curriculum Snapshot:

• Juniors & Seniors are required to major in one of the following areas: architectural engineering, biomedical sciences, chemistry, civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental science & engineering, industrial design, Math Science Institute, mechanical engineering, media communications, technology & liberal arts, or social science research.
  
• Advanced Placement, honors and accelerated courses are offered in all areas of the curriculum. Tech has been awarded the 2005-2006 Siemens Award for Advanced Placement for the entire state of New York.
• Each May, more than 2,500 Advanced Placement examinations for college credit are administered in English Literature and Composition, World History, Spanish Literature, American History, U.S. Government, Comparative Government, Micro/Macro Economics, Psychology, Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics B and C, Computer Science and Calculus AB and BC.

Tech Highlights:

• Tech is a charter member of the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools for Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST).
  
• Tech was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 96 schools in the country.
  
• The U.S. Department of Education recognized Tech as a National School of Excellence and selected it as a New American High School.
  
• Tech excels with outstanding accomplishments in mathematics, science and engineering competitions, including First Place winners in the Intel International Science and Engineering Competition and a nationally ranked mathematics team.
  
• The annual Brooklyn Tech Research and Development Expo draws an average of 200 participants with more than 125 science, math and engineering projects.
  
• Tech is one of the leading city high schools in its leadership and volunteer training programs.

Building and Facilities

The school, built on its present site from 1930-33 at a cost of $6 million, is 12 stories high, and covers almost an entire city block. Facilities include:

• Gymnasiums on the first and eighth floors, with a mezzanine running track above the larger first floor gym. The eighth floor gym had a bowling alley lane and an adjacent wire-mesh enclosed rooftop sometimes used for handball and for tennis practice.
• Swimming pool
• Wood, machine and other specialized shops. Most have been converted into normal classrooms or computer labs, except for a robotics shop.
• Foundry on the seventh floor, with a floor of molding sand used for creating sand casting molds. It was closed during the 1990s.
• Materials testing lab, used during the basic materials science (Strength of Materials) class. Included industrial capacity Universal Testing Machine.
• Aeronautical lab, featuring a large wind tunnel.
• Radio studio. Registered with Federal Communications Commission as WNYE (FM), it has not been used since the 1980s.
• 3,100-seat auditorium — Second-largest in New York City next to Radio City Music Hall, with two balconies.
• Recital hall.
• Scientifically equipped classrooms for Chemistry works for each student.
• Technical drawing and freehand drawing rooms.
• Library with fireplaces.
• Football field on Fulton and Clermont Streets. The Football Field, named in honor of Brooklyn Tech Alumnus Charles Wang, was opened in 2001, with the home opener played October 6, 2001, against DeWitt Clinton High School.
• Access to Fort Greene Park for outdoor track, tennis, etc.

A 456-foot-tall rooftop broadcasting antenna, when added to the height of the building itself (145 feet), makes Brooklyn Tech the borough's tallest structure, at 597 feet high It is 85 feet taller than Brooklyn's tallest building, the 512-foot Williamsburg Savings Bank.

In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which later became the Works Projects Administration (WPA), commissioned artist Maxwell B. Starr to paint a mural in the foyer depicting the evolution of man and science throughout history.

Brooklyn Tech's founder and first principal, Dr. Albert L. Colston, had an apartment built for himself in the tower of the building, and was the only person to live at Brooklyn Tech

In December 2006, developer and New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner proposed a new building for Tech as part of the basketball arena he is constructing at the Atlantic Yards. The building will reportedly be able to fit about 6000 students.

HISTORY

Early Academics

A notable feature of Brooklyn Tech is its system of college-style majors . The curriculum consists of two years of general studies with a technical and engineering emphasis, followed by two years of a student-chosen major.

The curriculum remained largely unchanged until the end of Dr. Colston's 20-year term as principal in 1942. Upon his retirement, Tech was led briefly by acting principal Ralph Breiling, who was succeeded by Principal Harold Taylor in 1944. Tech's modernization would come under Principal William Pabst, who assumed stewardship in 1946 after serving as chair of the Electrical Department. Pabst created new majors and refined older ones, allowing students to select science and engineering preparatory majors including Aeronautical; Architecture; Chemistry; Civil; Electrical (later including electronics); Industrial Design, Mechanical and Structural. Arts and Sciences, a general college preparatory curriculum, would be added later.

Principal Pabst retired in 1964. In August 1965, a ten-year-old boy named Carl Johnson drowned in the swimming pool at Brooklyn Tech while swimming with his day-camp group. The next year, more than 30 graduating Seniors in the school (including many student leaders) complained that Tech's curriculum was old and outdated. Their primary complaint was that the curriculum was geared towards the small minority of students that were not planning on attending college. In 1967 the schools of New York City got to view television in the classrooms for the first time, thanks to the station WNYE-TV, then located in the transmitter center on top of Brooklyn Tech.

1968 was a turbulent year at Tech, when Principal Isidor Auerbach rebuked approximately 200 students who had violated the school's dress code by wearing jeans to school. Dean Jack Feuerstein lectured the students on discipline then sent them to the auditorium, where they spent the day studying. In early February, approximately 300 students at Tech protested outside in support of the Vietnam War, with students holding signs that said "Support the Boys in Vietnam" and "Bomb Hanoi"

In May 1969, 60 students were suspended in what was called the biggest mass suspension ever in New York City's public school system^] The suspensions came about when three students were first suspended for hanging pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., and Eldridge Cleaver, spokesperson for the Black Panther Party, in the cafeteria. 60 other students refused to go to their classes to protest the suspension of these three and were subsequently suspended by Principal Auerbach.

Endowment

In March 1998, an alumni group led by Leonard Riggio, class of 1958 announced plans for a fundraising campaign to raise $10 million to support their alma mater financially through facilities upgrades, establishment of curriculum enhancements, faculty training, and a university-type endowment. The endowment fundraiser, the first of its kind for an American public school, received front-page attention at The New York Times and sparked a friendly competition amongst the specialized high schools, with both Bronx Science and Stuyvesant announcing their own $10 million campaigns within weeks of the Brooklyn Tech announcement. In November 2005, the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Association announced the completion of the fundraising phase of what they had termed the Campaign for Brooklyn Tech.

Tech in the 21st Century

Since 2001, Brooklyn Tech has undergone such refurbishing as the renovation of the school's William L. Mack Library entrance, located on the fifth-floor center section. As well, two computer labs were added. The school also reinstated a class devoted to the study of Shakespeare, which students can elect to take in their senior year.

Classes were held during the 2005 New York City transit strike, though attendance was sparse.

Tech uses a college-style system of majors, unusual for an American high school. As of April 2007, majors include:

• Aerospace Engineering will be reinstated for the class of 2010. Students take AP Physics B and Engineering in Junior year, and Aerospace Engineering, AP Physics C and Astronomy in Senior year.
• Applied Physics: Formerly Electrical/Mechanical Engineering. Students take AP Physics B and Project Lead the Way Principles of Engineering Junior year (11th) grade. AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, Project Lead the Way Digital Electronics, and Robotics during Senior year (12) grade.
• Architectural Engineering: Students take Project Lead the Way Civil Engineering & Architecture and Construction Documents junior year. Structural design, Senior Design Studio, and Building Construction during senior year.
• Biochemistry (Gateway to Medicine Program/PULSE)
• Biomedical Sciences (Bio-Med): Students take AP Biology junior year. Genetics, Anatomy, and Organic chemistry senior year.
• Chemistry (Chem): Students take Advanced Placement Chemistry junior Year. Quantitative analysis and Organic chemistry senior year. Students take Quantitative analysis Fall term, then Organic chemistry during the Spring Term. Both classes are triple periods.
• Civil Engineering (Civil): Students take Project Lead the Way Civil Engineering & Architecture and Surveying junior year. Structural design and Senior Design Studio senior year. Civil Engineering Senior Design Studio is different from Architecture Senior Design Studio.
• Computer Science Technology (Comp-Sci): Students take AP Computer Science, A+, and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) junior year. Database Design, Project Lead the Way Digital Electronics, and Video game design senior year.
• Environmental Science: Students take AP Environmental Science junior year. Urban Planning and Environmental health or Energy and Engineering senior year. In addition students must choose another Advanced Placement Science class to take senior year. Their options are AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics B and AP Physics C.
• Industrial Design (ID): Students take two dimensional & three dimensional Design and Drawing and Product Design junior year. AP Art History, AP Studio Art 2D, and Project Lead the Way Computer-integrated manufacturing senior year.
• Law and Society: Formerly Technology and Liberal Arts. Students take AP United States History, AP United States Government and Politics, and Constitutional Law junior year. Criminal law, Forensic Criminology, Ethics, Logic, and a Mock Trail competition course senior year.
• Mathematics: Students take Math Analysis and Math Research junior year. Math Analysis, AP Calculus BC, Discrete mathematics, and Linear algebra senior year. Math Analysis is a class for participation in the school Math team. AP Calculus BC is a double period. It is formerly known as the Math Science Institute (MSI).
• Media Communications (Media): Students take Computer Graphics I and II, Graphic Design, and Digital Photography junior year. Web Design, Adobe Flash, AP Studio Art 2D, and Animation senior year.
• Social Science Research (SSR): Students take Social Science Research junior year. AP Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology senior year. Students also have a choice of continuing Social Science Research or mentoring junior students in junior year Social Science Research.

Students apply for majors in sophomore year, and take ten semesters of major classes throughout junior and senior year. Tech also has a Bio-Chemistry major as part of its "Gateway to Medicine" program, to which, unlike the other majors, students apply to as incoming freshmen. All Advanced Placement science courses are taught as double periods to accommodate the large lab requirement.

Extracurricular Activities

Brooklyn Tech fields 30 junior-varsity and varsity teams in the Public School Athletic League (PSAL). The school's more than 100 clubs and organizations include math, debate, forensics (speech), robotics, chess and mock trial teams, which compete in inter-school tournaments. The Model U.N. Club provides students with a venue for discussing foreign affairs. Other clubs cater to a wide range of topics such as anime, Dance Dance Revolution, ultimate Frisbee, politics, quilting, and animal rights. Brooklyn Tech is also known for its strong varsity swim program and its tennis team.S.I.N.G. is an annual tradition that pits seniors against juniors against freshmen and sophomores in a competition to create the best student-produced play. Additionally, Tech students put on a musical each spring.

The school Coordinator of Student Activities (COSA) works with students to help organize events and gain administration approval for student activities.

Beginning with the class of 2010, each student must meet the following requirements by the end of their senior year to receive a Brooklyn Technical High School diploma:

I. A minimum of 50 hours of community service outside of the school or through specified club activities.

II. A minimum of 32 points earned through participation in Tech clubs, teams, and/or participation in designated school related events.

A. Points are earned as follows: 1. 8 points per term to all students in BETA, NHS, Student Government, student productions, stageworks, cheerleading, and PSAL teams. 2. 6 points per term to all students participating student leadership, who work on office squads, or compete in non-PSAL teams. 3. 4 points per term to all students who participate in all other clubs not referred to above. 4. 2 points per term for participation in specified school events

Alma Mater

Tech alma mater, noble and true
Proudly we rise to salute thee anew
Loyal we stand now 4000 strong
Wake, echoes, wake as we thunder our song

Tech, we will sound thy triumphs
Tech, we will sing of thy might and thy fame
Tech, may we all bring thee glory
All honor and praise to thy name

Firm thy foundation, thy torch lights the way
Guide us, protect us through bright days or gray
Tower symbolic of truth and of light
Here's to thy colors, the blue and the white

Tech, we will sound thy triumphs
Tech, we will sing of thy might and thy fame
Tech, may we all bring thee glory
All honor and praise to thy name

Note: Prior to coeducation, the opening stanza read:

Tech alma mater, molder of men
Proudly we rise to salute thee again
Loyal we stand, now 6,000 strong
Wake, echoes, wake as we thunder our song

Additionally, the third line of the last stanza had read:

Tech, may thy sons bring thee glory

Notable Alumni

The Brooklyn Tech Alumni Hall of Fame was established in 1998. Situated in the administrative wing of Tech, the Hall of Fame serves as reminder and inspiration to today's Tech students.

The Hall of Fame recognizes distinguished alumni who have made Brooklyn Tech's name honored throughout the country and the world and who exemplify the best of Tech. Members of the Hall of Fame have achieved distinction in their respective fields in the hope that their examples will inspire new generations of students to appreciate an education stressing mathematics, science, engineering and technology. Nominations are submitted by alumni, faculty, students and parents.

Hall of Fame inductees listed separately at end, by year. Note: No inductions 2001-2002 and 2004.

• Gary Ackerman, 1960 - U.S. Congressman
• Warren Adler, c. 1945 - Author, The War of the Roses
• John Catsimatidis, 1966 - Chairman & CEO, Red Apple Group, Inc.
• Tom Chapin, 1962 - Entertainer, humanitarian
• Kim Coles, 1980 - Actor
• John Piña Craven, 1942 - former chief scientist of the US Navy's Special Projects Office
• Richard Fariña, 1945 - Writer, folksinger
• Lou Ferrigno, 1969 - Bodybuilder, actor
• Warren Foster, (year?) - cartoon music composer for Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera
• David Groh, 1958 - Actor, television's Rhoda
• Herbert L. Henkel, 1966 - Chairman, president & CEO, Ingersoll-Rand Company
• Tommy Holmes, 1935 - Major League Baseball player
• Troy Johnson, 1980 - Founder, AALBC.com
• Stuart Kessler, C.P.A.,1947 - Chairman, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants board of directors
• Richard LaMotta, 1960 - Founder of Chipwich, ice cream sandwich company
• Ivan Lee, 1999 - Internationally ranked saber fencer
• Harvey Lichtenstein, {year?) - executive director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1967-99)
• Richard Matheson, 1943 - Author, I am Legend
• Matthew F. McHugh, (year?) - US Congressman (1975-1993)
• Conrad McRae, 1989 - Professional basketball player
• Werner Roth, 1966 - Professional soccer hall-of-famer
• Albert Ruddy, (year?) - two-time Academy Award winning producer
• Russ Salzberg, 1969 - WWOR-TV sports anchor
• Raymond Scott c. 1916 - Composer and inventor of the music sequencer
• Keeth Smart, 1996 - First American named #1 male saber fencer
• Anthony Weiner, 1981 - U.S. Congressman
• Robert Anton Wilson, 1950 - Author, Playboy editor
• WyMing Lin, 1994 - Narnia

1998 Hall of Fame inductees

Inaugural year

• Frank A. Cipriani, Ph.D. 1951 - President, SUNY at Farmingdale
• Adam J. Cirillo, 1929 - Educator, championship high-school football coach
• Albert L. Colston, Ph.D. – Creator and founding principal, Brooklyn Tech
• Gen. James E. Dalton, 1949 - Four-star general, United States Air Force
• Bernard Friedland, Ph.D., 1948 - Engineer, author
• Meredith C. Gourdine, Ph.D., 1948 - Electro gas dynamics pioneer, 1952 Olympic silver medalist
• Stuart Kessler, C.P.A. 1947 - Chairman, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Marvin Kitman, 1947 - Author, Newsday television critic
• Sal Restivo, Ph.D. 1958 - Author, researcher
• George Wald, Ph.D. 1923 - Biologist, 1967 Nobel Laureate

1999 Hall of Fame inductees

• Col. Karol J. Bobko, 1955 - astronaut
• Donald L. Klein, Ph.D., 1949 - Inventor, silicon gate transistor
• Sgt. Meyer S. Levin, 1934 - Decorated Air Force hero, World War II
• Harvey Lichtenstein, 1946 - President, Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Leonard Riggio, 1958 - Founder, Barnes & Noble

2000 Hall of Fame inductees

• Harry Chapin, 1960 - Entertainer, humanitarian
• Joseph J. Kohn, Ph.D. 1950 - Mathematician
• Arno A. Penzias, Ph.D. 1951 - Physicist, 1978 Nobel Laureate
• Charles B. Wang, 1962 - Founder, Computer Associates International; principal owner, New York Islanders hockey team
• Josh S. Weston, 1946 - Chairman, Automatic Data Processing, philanthropist

2003 Hall of Fame inductees

• Joseph J. Jacobs, Ph.D., 1934 - Author, engineer, humanitarian
• William L. Mack, 1957 - Chairman, Mack-Cali Realty; philanthropist
• Saverio "Sonny" Morea, 1950 - NASA engineer
• Steven P. Shearing, M.D. 1952 - Ophthalmologic surgeon, inventor of shearing lens

2005 Hall of Fame inductees

• Joseph M. Colucci, 1954 - Executive director, General Motors, Research & Design Center
• Joseph "Tucker" Madawick, 1937 - President, Industrial Designers Society of America
• Bernard Gifford, Ph.D., 1961 - Scientist, Apple Computer vice president of education
• George W. Sutton, 1945 - Author, editor, mechanical engineer who designed ablation head shield material for space re-entry
• Paul C. Szasz, 1947 - International-law scholar

Building and Facilities

Brooklyn Tech as seen from Ashland Place in Fort Greene

From the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Fort Greene Place

The radio transmitting antenna atop the school

The school, built on its present site from 1930-33 at a cost of $6 million, is 12 stories high, and covers over half a city block. Brooklyn Technical High School is directly across the street from Fort Greene Park. Facilities at BTHS include:

• Gymnasia on the first and eighth floors, with a mezzanine running track above the larger first floor gym and a weight room on the third floor boys’ locker room. The eighth floor gym had a bowling alley lane and an adjacent wire-mesh enclosed rooftop sometimes used for handball and for tennis practice.
• 25-yard swimming pool
• Wood, machine, sheet metal and other specialized shops. A program involves a shop where an actual house is built and framed by students. Most have been converted into normal classrooms or computer labs, except for a few robotics shop.
• Foundry on the seventh floor, with a floor of molding sand used for creating sand casting molds and equipped with furnaces, kilns, ovens and ancillary equipment for metal smelting. Students made wooden patterns in pattern making which were used to make sand molds which were cast in the foundry and machined to specification in the machine shops. It was closed during the 1990s. The foundry complemented a mandatory course titled "Industrial Processes" which emphasized metallurgy and "how industry functions".
• Materials testing lab, used during the basic materials science (Strength of Materials) class. Included industrial capacity Universal Testing Machine and brinell hardness tester and polishing and microscopic examination rooms. During the 1960s, students attended "inspection training shop" and were taught to use X-ray analysis to detect metal fatigue failures, use of vernier measuring instruments, micrometers, and go-no-go gauges.
• Aeronautical lab, featuring a large wind tunnel, During the 1960s, a T-6 Texan U.S. Air Force surplus aircraft in the building was used for student aeronautical mechanic instruction.
• Radio studio and 18,000 watt transmitter licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as WNYE (FM). The studio has not been used since the 1980s.
• 3,100-seat auditorium, with two balconies — 2nd largest auditorium in all of New York City (after Radio City Music Hall)
• Recital hall
• Drafting, both pencil and ink technical drawing and freehand drawing rooms
• Library with fireplaces
• Football field on Fulton and Clermont Streets. The Football Field, named in honor of Brooklyn Tech Alumnus Charles Wang, was opened in 2001, with the home opener played October 6, 2001, against DeWitt Clinton High School.
• Access to Fort Greene Park for outdoor track, tennis, etc.
• Mock courtroom for use by the Law & Society major and the Mock Trial Team.
• A 456-foot (139 m)-tall rooftop broadcasting antenna, when added to the 145-foot (44 m) height of the building itself, makes Brooklyn Tech the borough's tallest structure, at 597 feet (182 m) high. It is 7 feet (2.1 m) taller than Brooklyn's tallest building, 388 Bridge Street, which stands at 590-foot (180 m).
• In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which later became the Works Projects Administration (WPA), commissioned artist Maxwell B. Starr to paint a mural in the foyer depicting the evolution of man and science throughout history.
• Brooklyn Tech's founder and first principal, Dr. Albert L. Colston, had an apartment built for himself in the tower of the building, and was the only person to live at Brooklyn Tech.