At a Glance
A small equity-focused high school in Canarsie where trust runs deep and suspensions don't happen
Best suited for
Families in Canarsie or eastern Brooklyn who want a small, relationship-driven high school with a college-prep STEAM pathway, have reliable transportation, and value a calm, low-discipline environment over the breadth of a large school.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of 4-year graduation, English Regents college-ready and Regents completion · DOE 2025 report
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- Zero suspensions — exceptionally rare for a NYC high school
- STEAM program with a 20% offer rate, drawing nearly five applicants per seat
- Perfect program richness score (100/100) including college partnerships with Brooklyn College, Medgar Evers, Vaughn, and SUNY
- 100% parent-principal trust and 96% parent satisfaction, suggesting unusually strong family-school relationships
- Small enrollment of 214 students across four grades, allowing for real individual attention
Things to consider
- No subway access — commute logistics are a real factor for families without a car
- Survey response rates are very low (11% of families, 19 teachers), so trust and satisfaction numbers reflect a small sample of highly engaged stakeholders rather than broad consensus
- 22% of students have IEPs, which means strong special education staffing is essential to verify on a visit
- 77% Black student body means families seeking a more racially mixed environment may want to look elsewhere
- Small size limits course offerings, athletics depth, and extracurricular range compared to larger high schools
Based on 2024-2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 18
Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity serves District 18 alongside charter and elementary peers like East Flatbush Ascend (81/100) and P.S. 244 (79/100). As the district's standalone equity-focused small high school, it occupies a different niche than its K-8 peers — there are no directly comparable traditional high schools in the district averages shown.
Academics
The school runs a Humanities academic track alongside ELL Support, French, and a STEAM program that competes with charter schools for applicants. With 21.9 students per class, class sizes match the district average exactly — neither intimate nor overcrowded. The school's program richness score is a perfect 100 out of 100, signaling an unusually broad offering of partnerships, electives, and extracurriculars relative to its size. Partnerships with Brooklyn College, Medgar Evers College, and College Now at SUNY schools suggest a deliberate college-prep culture, even though detailed proficiency numbers weren't provided for this profile.
Culture
The day-to-day feel here is warm and unusually stable. Zero disciplinary suspensions is remarkable for any high school and signals either strong classroom management, a small enough enrollment to maintain tight relationships, or both. Parent-principal trust sits at 100% and parent-teacher trust at 99% — near-universal confidence from families, though it's worth noting only 25 families returned the survey, so the sample is small. Teachers report 100% on instruction quality and 84% trust in their principal, with strong collegial trust at 88%. The main caveat is that only 19 teachers responded, so these numbers paint a picture of a tight-knit staff rather than a large consensus.
Community
The student body is 77% Black, 12% Hispanic, and 5% Asian, with a diversity index of 44% — a less heterogeneous mix than citywide but reflective of Canarsie's longstanding demographics. Three-quarters of students qualify for economic need, and 22% have IEPs, meaning the school serves a population that needs real support. The neighborhood around the school has a median household income of about $82,000 and a 12.8% poverty rate, with 28.7% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher — a working- and middle-class community where most families rent or own modestly.
Neighborhood
Canarsie is a residential, car-dependent pocket of eastern Brooklyn with a median home value around $688,000 and a 50.5% homeownership rate — relatively high for the borough, signaling stability. About 14.6% of households have children, and the poverty rate sits at 12.8%, lower than many Brooklyn neighborhoods. The area has a working-class and middle-class character, with strong neighborhood ties and a BA+ attainment rate of 28.7%. It's the kind of place where families tend to stay for generations rather than cycle through.
There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school. Families who don't drive should plan on school buses, local buses, or car arrangements — this is not a transit-accessible location.
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 25 families responded (11% rate)
Programs & Activities
Admissions Demand
S.T.E.A.M. education creates an integrated, innovative and equitable learning environment in every classroom. We use a S.T.E.A.M. approach in order to facilitate learning experiences driven by problem solving, discovery, and exploratory learning. S.T.E.A.M. allows students to connect what they learn with what they see around them and who they are, promotes student readiness for college, prepares them for a 21st century workforce, and provides opportunities for critical and design thinking.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
High school (9th grade)
High school is one citywide application, made in 8th grade. Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Brooklyn Generation SchoolLimited UnscreenedEvent priority81 seats
High school application
- Opened
- Tue, Oct 6
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 4
- Offers
- Wed, Mar 3
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the high school application, in 8th grade.
- 2Programs marked “Event priority” put families who attended an open house, tour or information session first — sign in when you go.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
A program here gives priority to families who attended an event — sign in when you go.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity a good school?
- On Motley, Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity earns an overall rating of 54/100 — the average of the school's four-year graduation rate, the share of its students scoring college-ready (70+) on the English Regents, and its Regents completion rate, shown out of 100.
- What grades does Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity serve?
- Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity?
- Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity admits mostly by lottery, with a modest preference for students who show interest (a tour or info session).
- Is Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity public, charter, or private?
- Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity is a public school in NYC Community School District 18.
- What neighborhood is Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity in?
- Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity is in Canarsie, Brooklyn.