At a Glance
A small, leadership-themed charter high school rooted in the heart of Bed-Stuy
Best suited for
Families looking for a small, leadership-themed high school where their teen will be known by name and learn alongside a student body rooted in Bed-Stuy's Black community — especially families who want a charter option and are willing to ask hard questions about climate before applying.
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
- Tiny by design — 253 students across four high-school years means teachers and advisors can genuinely know each teen.
- A leadership-and-college-prep mission aligned with Bed-Stuy's long civic tradition, which gives the school a clear identity beyond test scores.
- Student body is 78% Black in a neighborhood that is also predominantly Black, so families will find a school that reflects their community.
- Average class size around 18 keeps instruction intimate even if the number itself matches the district average.
- An IEP rate of 17% suggests the school is serving students with a real range of learning needs.
Things to consider
- Parent satisfaction (85.6%) is meaningfully below the district average of 91.3% — ask current families what that's working for them.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality (83%) is also below district average (86.1%), so ask about curriculum and teacher stability.
- The family survey got essentially zero responses, so any climate data from this source is thin — visit in person before deciding.
- It's a charter with lottery admissions, so applying doesn't guarantee a seat.
- As a 9–12 only school, families will need a separate K–8 plan for younger siblings.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 16
Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy sits in District 16, where most of the peer schools listed are elementary programs (Brooklyn Brownstone, P.S. 262, P.S. 5) — direct high-school comparisons are limited. As a charter it operates independently of district schools while drawing from the same Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights community.
Academics
The data provided doesn't include subject proficiency scores for this school, so we can't say how students perform on state ELA, math, or science tests relative to the district. What we can say is that the school is small, focused on college readiness through its leadership mission, and serves a student body with high economic need — the kind of context where one or two strong teachers can meaningfully shift a student's trajectory. The picture is incomplete without test data, and parents should ask the school directly for recent proficiency numbers and graduation rates before applying.
Culture
Parent satisfaction sits at 85.6% — meaningfully below the district average of 91.3% — and teacher-reported instruction quality is 83%, also below the district's 86.1%. The family survey response rate was effectively zero (one response), which means the parent satisfaction number reflects a small slice of families, not the full picture. Without attendance or suspension data to lean on, the climate story is mostly about who shows up to answer surveys at all — and here, that answer is "not many." For parents, this is worth pressing on: ask other families at an info session how communication actually feels day-to-day.
Community
Eighty percent of students identify as Black and another 17% as Hispanic, a student-body composition that closely mirrors the surrounding Bed-Stuy community the school serves. The economic need index of 73.3 tells you most families qualify for free/reduced lunch or similar supports, and 17% of students have IEPs — a higher share than many small charters work with. It's a school built around a specific community, not one trying to recruit broadly across borough lines.
Neighborhood
Bedford-Stuyvesant (East) is a historically Black Brooklyn neighborhood where the median household income is around $70,750 and roughly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. Just under 12% of households have children under 18 — relatively low family density — and only about a quarter of homes are owner-occupied, with a median home value north of $1.1 million that reflects how much the area has appreciated in the last decade. About 41% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, and the neighborhood remains a cultural anchor for Black Brooklyn.
The J train at Kosciuszko Street is about a five-minute walk, and the M, J, and Z lines at Myrtle Avenue are roughly nine minutes away, with the M at Central Avenue about 11 minutes on foot.
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 1 families responded (0% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Economic Need & Special Populations
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School a good school?
- On Motley, Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School earns an overall rating of 45/100 — 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 Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School serve?
- Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School?
- Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School is a charter school — it admits through a free public lottery, with no test or attendance zone.
- Is Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School public, charter, or private?
- Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School is a public charter school in NYC Community School District 16.
- What neighborhood is Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School in?
- Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School is in Bedford-Stuyvesant (East), Brooklyn.