BDCA is a Career and Technical Education school that prepares students for direct entry into the design and construction field and for entry to a four-year college without remediation.

The school has a strong academic focus along with course work in carpentry, plumbing, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electric, and architectural drafting/pre-engineering.

Freshmen take a survey course to find which strand is the best fit for them and focus solely on that strand during for their sophomore, junior and senior years.

BDCA was founded in 2011 by Transportation Diversity Council under its founder and President Dwayne Sampson, superintendent, Department of Buses, New York City Transit. Sampson worked in partnership with Smalls Electrical and Construction Inc. and its President Jeffery Smalls, and the New York City Department of Education to preserve instruction in the construction trades at the high school level.

BDCA is already a top-ranking competitive high school with a diverse student body. Of the 650 students, 16 percent are female, 70 percent Hispanic and 28 percent are African American. Its first graduating class next June is on target to graduate 80 percent of its students with a New York State Regents Diploma along with a CTE certification. The school it replaced had a graduation rate of just 27 percent.

All students at BDCA receive a rigorous four-year liberal arts education alongside their CTE training. We provide a challenging interdisciplinary program that ties academic skills and discipline with CTE coursework. By focusing on a skills-based approach, we help students make connections between their coursework and real-world problems so that they may find unique and tenable solutions to any problem they wish to solve.

On Saturday, July 11, 2015 Five Bronx Design and Construction Academy students had the opportunity to attend the 44^th COMTO National Meeting and Training Conference at Harvard University (Law School Campus) located at 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.  Student names: (Josh Cruz and Damari Wilcher, majoring in Electric, Leonny Correa and Joan Gil majoring in Plumbing and Steven Grullon, majoring in carpentry.  Accompanied by Mr. Eugene Hucks, Director of Career Services, Bronx Design and Construction Academy, Thalia Panton, BDCA, Career and College readiness consultant and Dwayne Sampson, President and CEO, Transportation Diversity Council, the students had the opportunity to Tour Harvard’s  Law school Campus, attended Youth Symposium and the Great Transportation Debate . The purpose of the Youth Symposium was to Educate, Expose and Inform High School and College Students of transit career opportunities and various Scholarship opportunities offered by COMTO and other entities across the country.  BDCA students met local leaders in the transportation industry.

Tour Harvard University’s Campus Youth Symposium: The Great Transportation Debate.

The National Association for Urban Debate League will present "The Great Transportation Debate” at this year's Youth Symposium, featured four of the country's top high school-age urban debaters engaged in a policy debate regarding a critical public policy issue, "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.” Students from urban debate leagues in Boston and Detroit presented on both sides of the issue and challenges their fellow students to decide the best way forward. Youth Symposium attendees participated in the debate as judges and were able to raise transportation policy questions to which the debaters responded and addressed.