Central Brooklyn Ascend Charter School

Central Brooklyn Ascend's 80% ELA and 78% math proficiency dwarf the District 22 averages of 61% and 60% — and the 86.2% science proficiency tells the same story. The trajectory is the real headline: ELA proficiency has nearly doubled from 40.5% in 2017 to 80% in 2025, and math has climbed from 49.4% to 78% over the same window, with no regression years in sight. Scores by grade show middle school is where this school really shines — 8th-graders hit 90.8% in ELA and 88.4% in math, and 6th-graders cleared 91% in math. This is a sustained, broadly distributed improvement rather than a one-year spike.

The school's 97.2% attendance rate sits well above the district's 91.4%, suggesting families and students are showing up consistently day-to-day. However, two survey signals give pause: parent satisfaction is 80.8% (below the district's 91.2%) and teacher-reported instruction quality is just 50.8% — dramatically lower than the district's 89.8%. The family survey response rate was only 1% (4 responses), so parent perspectives are drawn from an extremely thin sample. The reported chronic absenteeism figure of 93% is internally inconsistent with the 97.2% attendance rate and is worth asking the school to clarify directly.

Eighty-five percent of students are Black, with Hispanic students making up another 10% — a demographic mix that closely mirrors the East Flatbush-Erasmus neighborhood, which is itself predominantly Black Caribbean and working-class. The economic need index of 74 (on a 100-point scale) signals that a large share of students come from lower-income households, well above the citywide norm. With 13% of students classified as having IEPs, the school serves a meaningfully inclusive special education population. The diversity index of 32% is low, meaning students here experience a relatively homogeneous community — an asset for some families, a limitation for others seeking broader exposure.

East Flatbush-Erasmus is a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood with a median household income of about $71,700 and a poverty rate of 15.8%, where most residents rent — homeownership sits at just 17.4%. About a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 13% of households have children under 18, so this is a quieter, less family-dense area than parts of Brooklyn further north. The neighborhood has a strong Black Caribbean cultural identity and a deep bench of churches, bakeries, and small businesses that reflect it. Families get around almost entirely via the 2 and 5 trains, which run right through here.

The school is exceptionally well-connected — the Newkirk Av-Little Haiti 2/5 stop is just a 2-minute walk, with Beverly Rd and Flatbush Av-Brooklyn College stations (also 2/5) each about a 9-minute walk away.