Evergreen Middle School for Urban Exploration

ELA proficiency of 36.5% and math proficiency of 36.6% both sit below district averages (45.9% and 43.2% respectively), and the overall school score of 1.46/4 trails the district's 1.78/4. But the trajectory is striking: ELA went from 8.5% in 2016 to 36.5% in 2025, and math went from 2.5% to 36.6% over the same span. One thing parents should notice — there's a real gap between the grades here. Grade 7 math hit 55.5% proficiency while Grade 8 math landed at 21.9%, so the year your child enters matters. The current scores tell you students are catching up, not yet leading, but the decade-long climb is genuinely unusual.

Day-to-day, this school feels well-run by most measures. Parent satisfaction is 96% (well above the district's 93.2%), and trust between parents and teachers runs at 97% — among the strongest in the comparison set. Teachers rate instructional quality at 94% and trust in school leadership at 92%, both above district averages. The 95.9% attendance rate is notably higher than the district's 91.9%, but chronic absenteeism is also high at 90.7% — these two numbers describe different things: most enrolled students show up consistently, but a long tail of students miss enough days to count as chronically absent. Discipline is gentle, with a 1% suspension rate (below the district's 1.19%) and totals that have stayed in single digits for several years.

The student body is 79% Hispanic and 19% Black, mirroring the surrounding neighborhood's demographics closely. The diversity index of 34% reflects this concentration rather than a mix — most families sending kids here share similar backgrounds and life circumstances. The economic need index of 89.7% means nearly nine in ten students qualify for free lunch, and 22% have IEPs. Despite those resource pressures, parent engagement runs deep: 237 families completed the survey (68% response rate), suggesting this is a community that shows up for its school.

East Bushwick is a working-class neighborhood where median household income sits around $67,000 and nearly a quarter of households live below the poverty line. Only about 12% of households here have children — lower than many parts of Brooklyn — and just one in five homes are owner-occupied, though median home values have climbed to around $949,000, reflecting the broader Brooklyn shift. About a third of neighborhood adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Families reach the school mostly by subway. The Wilson Av (L) stop is about a 7-minute walk, and the Chauncey St (J, Z) and Halsey St (J) stops are each about 8 minutes on foot.