Welcome to BFA
Welcome to the Baltimore Freedom Academy, a school that encourages the positive transformation of urban youth. BFA emphasizes leadership, academic excellence, community involvement, and personal development.
As one of Baltimore city’s “innovation” high schools, we are able to build a different school culture from that typically found in city high schools. We have chosen to keep our school small, never enrolling more that 400 students in all four grades. We guarantee each student gets personal attention. We select talented faculty who believe in our students. We choose curriculum and implement programs specifically designed to develop the strengths and talents we know our students possess. We have our own Board of Directors who keep our standards high and get the additional resources needed to achieve our goals. We attract students and families who want to be here.
- Supportive faculty, parents, and community volunteers and partnerships all contribute to an atmosphere of high expectations for students - and students are motivated to succeed. While 75% of BFA students come from economically challenged environments, our students are breaking the traditional stereotypes:
- Average attendance is 92% vs. 76% average attendance for all BCPSS high schools.
- At least 76% of BFA students have expressed a clear plan to go to college – including many who are the first in their families to complete high school.
- BFA students scored fifth highest citywide on the 2005 Biology High School Assessment (HSA) and ranked highest for high schools without academic entrance criteria.
- BFA students scored second highest among high schools without academic entrance criteria on the 2005 English High School Assessment (HAS/MSA).
- BFA's Debate Team placed Third Place citywide in the Baltimore Urban Debate League for the 2005-2006 seasons. Also, two BFA students traveled to Great Britain as part of a team of only four students from the United States, to participate in a two week international debate conference.
- Sixteen BFA students competed for the first time in a citywide Mock Trial Competition; BFA and City College are the only public high schools that competed.
- A BFA student was selected for the 2005-2006 school year to participate in the Hippodrome Young Critics Program. He attended performances and submitted critiques the Hippodrome then posted on its website.