At a Glance
A small Crown Heights charter serving mostly Black and Hispanic families, working against steep academic headwinds
Best suited for
Families committed to a small, community-rooted charter who prioritize proximity and a specific cultural fit over top test scores, and who are ready to engage actively around attendance and instruction.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- PK-5 charter with a specific mission for Crown Heights families, in a borough crowded with higher-scoring Success Academy campuses
- High IEP population (26%) and high economic need (82.6) — the school serves a student body with significant support needs
- Pre-pandemic trajectory showed dramatic academic growth (ELA nearly doubled from 18% to 40% in three years), suggesting strong instructional capacity that has been harder to sustain
- Small total enrollment (419) means teachers may know students well, even if survey results suggest room for improvement
Things to consider
- Test scores lag district averages by 17-25 points, and recent years show a slip from 2023 highs
- Chronic absenteeism at 64% means most students are missing significant school — this affects everything else
- Parent satisfaction (67%) and teacher-reported instruction quality (67%) both sit well below district norms, suggesting cultural or communication challenges
- The school competes for lottery applicants against several highly-rated Success Academy charters in the same neighborhood
Based on 2023-24 data
School SummaryDistrict 17
In District 17, this school sits in the lower tier academically. The district's average overall score is 2.36/4, and Explore Exceed's 1.51 places it behind the neighborhood's Success Academy peers (which score in the high 80s and 90s) and behind district standouts like P.S. 249 (89/100). It is, by these measures, a school that's struggling relative to its immediate neighbors.
Academics
ELA proficiency at 35.5% and math at 40.2% both trail District 17 averages (60.5% and 57.3% respectively) by roughly 17-25 points. Science proficiency is especially low at 13.6%. The school showed a remarkable climb from 2016 (18.2% ELA, 20.2% math) through 2019 (39.7% ELA, 47.9% math), suggesting real instructional gains before the pandemic, but the gains have been uneven since. Scores spiked to 51.6% math in 2023 before falling back to 40.2% in 2024, and ELA has drifted downward from a 2023 peak of 44.4%. The pattern is one of progress that hasn't held.
Culture
Chronic absenteeism is the headline concern: 64.4% of students missed 10% or more of the school year, far above what's typical and a serious barrier to learning. Attendance overall sits at 90.3%, just below the district average of 91%. Parent satisfaction is 67% against a district average of 91%, and teacher-reported instruction quality is 67.2% versus 89.1% district-wide — both meaningfully lower than peers. These numbers suggest families and staff aren't feeling the school is landing well, and that perception gap is worth taking seriously.
Community
The student body is 76% Black and 19% Hispanic, with very small Asian, white, multiracial, and Native American populations — yielding a diversity index of just 42%. Economic need index of 82.6 means most students come from low-income households, and 26% have IEPs. The school draws from Crown Heights (North), where median household income is about $74,000 and 20% of residents live in poverty, so the families sending kids here largely mirror the surrounding working-class neighborhood. This is a school that has chosen to focus on a specific community rather than chase citywide demographics.
Neighborhood
Crown Heights (North) is a densely populated, family-oriented pocket of central Brooklyn where about 11% of households include children and roughly 42% of adults hold a bachelor's degree. The median home value near $1 million reflects the broader Brooklyn market pressure even in a neighborhood where most residents are renters (homeownership is just 16.4%). Local families navigate a working-class, transit-connected stretch of the borough.
The school is a quick walk from the Park Place S station (about 5 minutes) and from the Franklin Avenue C and S stations (about 7 minutes each).
Enrollment & applying
Enrollment availability is tracked from the school's published listings and refreshed daily. Confirm cycle dates on the school's own site before applying.
Academic Performance
ELA Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State ELA exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Math Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Math exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Historical Trends
The dashed line marks 2023, when New York changed its grades 3–8 state tests. Scores before and after it aren’t directly comparable.
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Economic Need & Special Populations
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Explore Exceed Charter School a good school?
- On Motley, Explore Exceed Charter School earns an overall rating of 38/100 — the average of the school's New York State ELA and math proficiency, grades 3–8, shown out of 100. Its state test results run below the District 17 average.
- What grades does Explore Exceed Charter School serve?
- Explore Exceed Charter School serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into Explore Exceed Charter School?
- Explore Exceed Charter School is a charter school — it admits through a free public lottery, with no test or attendance zone.
- Is Explore Exceed Charter School public, charter, or private?
- Explore Exceed Charter School is a public charter school in NYC Community School District 17.
- What neighborhood is Explore Exceed Charter School in?
- Explore Exceed Charter School is in Crown Heights (North), Brooklyn.