Brooklyn Collaborative Studies

Brooklyn Collaborative's test scores sit below the District 15 averages of 65% ELA and 63% math — 53% in ELA and 46% in math here means most are not yet proficient, even though the school is no longer the academic outlier it once was. The trajectory is genuinely remarkable when you zoom out: from roughly 17–22% ELA proficiency in 2016–2017 to a peak of 67% in 2023, before pulling back to the low 50s over the last two years. Math shows a similar arc, climbing from 12% in 2016 to a 60% peak in 2023, then settling at 46% in 2025. The school isn't leading the district academically, but it has transformed itself from one of the lowest-performing schools in the borough into something much closer to average.

Day-to-day feel at Brooklyn Collaborative is mixed. On the trust and instruction side, the signals are strong: 93% of teachers rate instruction quality positively, 97% of parents trust the principal, and 97% report parent-teacher trust — all above district averages. But attendance is a real headwind. An 88% attendance rate and 62.7% chronic absenteeism rate mean most students miss substantial school, and the gap is striking — just 45% of Black students and 47% of Hispanic students are chronically absent, compared to 80% of white students. The suspension picture is the most concerning trend: suspensions went from 1 in 2021–22, to 8 in 2022–23, to 18 in 2023–24, with a 3% suspension rate well above the district's 0.3%. That trajectory is worth asking about.

The student body is one of the more diverse in the neighborhood, with a 74% diversity index: 35% Hispanic, 30% Black, 26% White, 5% Asian, and 3% multi-racial. With an economic need index of 61%, the school serves a meaningfully higher share of low-income students than you'd guess from the surrounding blocks — only 20.8% of households in the neighborhood even have children. In other words, this school pulls a working-class and middle-class cross-section of Brooklyn families into one of the borough's wealthiest zip codes, which is part of what makes the lottery demand so intense. About a quarter of students have IEPs, and the school offers ELL support.

The Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill–Gowanus–Red Hook neighborhood that surrounds the school is one of Brooklyn's wealthiest: median household income is about $140,000, more than two-thirds of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and the median home value tops $1.7 million. Despite all that affluence, only about one in five households includes children, which is why the school pulls students from well beyond the immediate blocks. Getting around means the F and G trains, which run along the neighborhood's spine.

The school is about an 8-minute walk from the Carroll St (F, G) station, an 11-minute walk from Smith–9 Sts (F, G), and a 15-minute walk from Bergen St (F, G) — the F and G are really the only subway options here.