Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School

Both ELA (84.1%) and math (82.5%) proficiency sit dramatically above the District 16 averages of roughly 58% each, and the school's overall rating of 3.33/4 outpaces the district's 2.29/4. The trajectory is one of the more dramatic improvements in Brooklyn: ELA proficiency has roughly tripled and math nearly quadrupled since 2016, with consistent year-over-year gains through the pandemic disruption. Results are strongest in the lower grades (Grade 3 hits 93.9% in math, Grade 4 follows at 92.3%), but Grade 8 math drops sharply to 39.3% — a notable dip that bears watching as students approach high school.

The school's 90.4% attendance rate edges out the district average of 88.7%, but the chronic absenteeism rate of 65.7% is a serious flag — it means more than two of every three students miss enough school to qualify as chronically absent. Hispanic students (73.3%) are disproportionately affected compared to Black students (56.1%). Parent satisfaction (64.2%) and teacher-rated instruction quality (65.6%) both run well below district norms (91.3% and 86.1% respectively), though the family survey response rate was effectively zero, so those survey numbers should be read with caution.

The student body is roughly half Black (46%) and half Hispanic (54%), with no White, Asian, or multiracial students reported — a demographic mirror of much of central Brooklyn. With an economic need index of 87.8, the vast majority of students come from low-income households, and 22% have IEPs, a meaningfully higher share than the citywide average. The school draws from a neighborhood where 23% of residents live below the poverty line and only 12% of households include children, suggesting many families are making a deliberate choice to send their kids here rather than just defaulting to a zoned school.

Bedford-Stuyvesant (East) is a neighborhood of contrasts: brownstones valued at well over a million dollars sit on the same blocks as households earning under $30,000 a year, and about 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Median household income lands around $70,755, and homeownership is low at 26.7% — most families rent. With just under 12% of households including children, it's a neighborhood with a strong adult professional presence and a smaller share of school-age families than many parts of Brooklyn.

The Myrtle Avenue station (M, J, Z lines) is about a 5-minute walk away; Flushing Avenue (M, J) is around 9 minutes, and Kosciuszko Street (J) is roughly 10 minutes on foot.