Ebbets Field Middle School

Ebbets Field's 2025 scores are genuinely noteworthy. ELA proficiency hit 59.3% — essentially matching the district average of 60.5% — while math proficiency reached 68.6%, well above the district average of 57.3%. That math number is the more striking one: more than two-thirds of students testing proficient is rare for a small, high-needs middle school. The historical trend tells the real story, though. In 2016, ELA proficiency was 9.8% and math was 13%; by 2018, both had roughly doubled. The jump accelerated in 2022 and 2025, with math going from 37.2% to 68.6% in a single year — a move that should be celebrated but also watched, because single-year swings can reflect cohort changes in a school this small. Grade-level data shows strength in 8th-grade math (82.9% proficient) and consistent ELA performance across all three grades (56–62%). The school's overall 2.56/4 score edges out the district average of 2.36, placing it in solid middle-of-the-pack territory.

The day-to-day feel at Ebbets Field, based on the 2025 surveys, is remarkably positive. Parent satisfaction is 99% (vs. district average of 91%), and parent-teacher and parent-principal trust both sit at 99% — essentially as high as surveys go. That's striking for a school where 86% of students qualify as economically needy and where 148 families took the time to respond. Teachers report 95% confidence in instruction quality (above the 89% district average) and 89% trust in the principal, though teacher collegial trust at 86% suggests some professional friction among staff. Discipline is mild: only 3 suspensions in 2023-24 (a 2% rate, up from zero in the prior two years) — not a red flag, but worth noting as a change. The attendance picture is more complicated: the 90.4% attendance rate is just below the district average of 91%, but the 64.9% chronic absenteeism rate is high, meaning many students miss substantial school. Boys (71.4%) and Black students (72.9%) are disproportionately represented in that chronic absence figure, which is a national pattern but one parents should know about.

The student body is 71% Black, 19% Hispanic, 7% White, and 2% Asian, with a diversity index of 50% — meaning the school is more racially concentrated than the neighborhood itself. This matches the surrounding Crown Heights (South) census profile, where 20% of households live below the poverty line and median household income is just over $70,000. The school draws a largely Black working- and middle-class population, and the high economic need index (86 out of 100) reflects that. With 34% of students having IEPs, this is also a school that serves a meaningful share of students with disabilities, and families looking at special-education supports should take that as a positive sign of inclusion rather than a red flag.

Crown Heights (South) is a neighborhood in transition, where the median home value sits at $1.18 million and only 14.5% of households own their homes — a sign of deep rental demand and rising costs. Median household income is around $70,000, and 20% of residents live below the poverty line, so the neighborhood mixes middle-class and working-class families in close quarters. About 14% of households have children, and 36% of adults have a bachelor's degree, putting it roughly in line with Brooklyn-wide educational attainment. The 13.9% share of households with kids is low for a family-oriented area, suggesting a mix of long-term residents and newer arrivals without children.

Three subway options are within an 8-minute walk: Prospect Park (B, Q, S), Botanic Garden (S), and Franklin Av–Medgar Evers College (2, 3, 4, 5). That's an unusually strong set of transit connections for a middle school, and the proximity to Prospect Park itself is a real amenity for after-school time.