Highland Park Community School

This is one of the more striking academic turnarounds in the district. ELA proficiency nearly doubled from 25.8% in 2016 to 49.8% in 2025, and math more than quadrupled, from 11.6% to 47.9%. Today the school sits essentially at the district average on both measures (district ELA: 48.9%, math: 48.2%), which represents a meaningful climb for a school that was far below just a few years ago. The catch is unevenness: 7th graders are doing well (59% ELA, 65% math), but 6th graders are still catching up (35% ELA, 21% math), and science proficiency lags at 32.5%. The overall school quality score of 1.95/4 lands right at the district average, suggesting a school that has arrived at 'typical' from a starting point well behind.

The day-to-day feel here reads warm and tight-knit. Parent satisfaction is 97% (well above the district's 91.4%), and parent trust in both teachers (98%) and the principal (97%) is exceptional — families clearly feel heard. Discipline is essentially a non-issue: zero suspensions in 2023-24 and only two the year before, far below the district average suspension rate of about 1.6%. The attendance picture is more complicated. The overall attendance rate is 91.2%, actually above the district average, but chronic absenteeism sits at 73.6%, meaning a large share of students miss enough school to be flagged. Hispanic students (76.4%) and boys (76.9%) are overrepresented in that group. Teacher trust in the principal is solid at 78%, and 87% of teachers rate instruction quality positively — though only 16 teachers responded, which is a small sample.

This is overwhelmingly a Hispanic school and a working-class one. Eighty-four percent of students identify as Hispanic, 7% as Black, 6% as Asian, and 2% as White, giving a diversity index of just 35% — among the lower-diversity middle schools in Brooklyn. Eighty-seven percent of students qualify for economic need, and 21% have IEPs. The school reflects its neighborhood closely: Cypress Hills households have a median income around $66,000, a 17.6% poverty rate, and a homeownership rate of just 33.5%, meaning most families rent. About 20.6% of neighborhood households have children at home, which is lower than many family-dense Brooklyn areas.

Cypress Hills is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood on the eastern edge of Brooklyn, where the median household income is around $66,262 and about 17.6% of residents live below the poverty line. Homeownership is just 33.5%, but the housing stock that does exist carries a median value of about $659,000 — a reminder that even in lower-income neighborhoods, home prices have climbed sharply. Only 20.6% of households have children under 18, and 16.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree. The neighborhood feels more rooted and less transient than some parts of Brooklyn, with a strong Latino presence that extends into the school itself.

The school is well-served by the J and Z lines, with Crescent St about a 6-minute walk, Cypress Hills about 7 minutes, and 75 St-Elderts Ln about 8 minutes away.