EMBER Charter School for Mindful Education, Innovation and Transformation

Proficiency sits below district averages — 43 percent in ELA and 45.6 percent in math, versus district figures of roughly 57.6 percent and 57 percent. The school's eight-year arc is actually a remarkable rise (ELA climbed from 36.6 percent in 2016 to a peak of 56.9 percent in 2023, and math from 17.1 percent to 56.7 percent in 2024), but 2025 marks a sharp pullback in both subjects. The grade-level breakdown shows the dip is uneven: Grade 4 hits 50 percent ELA and 64.7 percent math, Grade 6 reaches 60 percent math, but Grade 5 collapses to 13.6 percent ELA and 9.5 percent math, a wide and concerning swing.

Inside the building, the trust numbers are the strongest signal in the data: 99 percent of teachers trust their principal, 97 percent rate instruction quality positively, and both parent-principal and parent-teacher trust land at 96 percent, with overall parent satisfaction at 92 percent — slightly above the district average of 91 percent. The harder signals sit in two places. Teacher-reported safety is 89 percent, noticeably below the district's 94.2 percent. And chronic absenteeism is 53.6 percent — more than half of students miss enough school to be flagged — even though overall attendance (87.4 percent) is only slightly below the district's 88.7 percent. The day-to-day feel is of a school where adults clearly respect one another and families feel heard, but where too many students aren't physically present.

Of 518 students, 79 percent are Black, 17 percent Hispanic, and the remaining few percent are split across Asian, white, multiracial, and Native American students — a diversity index of 37 percent, meaning the student body is fairly homogeneous in terms of race. The economic need index sits at 77.3, indicating a high concentration of low-income students, and 19 percent have IEPs. The student profile maps closely onto the surrounding neighborhood, which is historically and currently Black and middle-income on paper but with a 23 percent poverty rate.

Bedford-Stuyvesant is a historically Black neighborhood in central Brooklyn with a median household income around $70,755 and a 23 percent poverty rate, suggesting a mix of working- and middle-class households. About 11.9 percent of households have children, and 40.8 percent of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Homeownership is 26.7 percent, but the median home value of roughly $1.18 million points to rising property values alongside a long-standing renter and owner population.

The closest subway is Utica Avenue on the A and C lines, about a six-minute walk. The C also stops at Ralph Avenue around twelve minutes away, and the J and Z reach Gates Avenue in about thirteen minutes on foot.