J.H.S. 278 Marine Park

ELA proficiency at 55.5% sits a few points below the District 22 average of about 61%, while math proficiency of 43.7% is well below the district average of roughly 60% — that's a meaningful gap in math. The trend from 2016 to now shows real improvement: ELA has climbed from 46.7% to the mid-50s, and math has moved from 36.6% to the mid-40s, with a peak of 52.7% in 2023. Recently, scores have settled into a plateau rather than continuing upward. The school's overall score of 1.98 out of 4 is below the district average of 2.43. Within the building, seventh graders outperform sixth and eighth graders in both subjects, which is worth noting if you have a sixth-grader entering.

This is a school where families feel heard and trust teachers — parent satisfaction (91%), parent-teacher trust (93%), and parent-principal trust (91%) all match or beat typical district numbers. The teacher side is more uneven: 88% of teachers rate instruction quality favorably, but only 50% express trust in school leadership, which is a notable internal signal worth asking about on a tour. The discipline picture is genuinely improving — suspensions dropped from 24 in 2021-22 to 18 to just 7 last year, a real trajectory parents should appreciate. The chronic absenteeism rate of 61.1% is high, meaning roughly six in ten students miss enough school to be flagged — that's a real concern that affects daily rhythm and learning. Attendance overall at 89% sits just below the district average of 91%.

The student body reflects the diversity of Marine Park and surrounding southeast Brooklyn: about 35% Black, 29% White, 16% Asian, and 16% Hispanic, giving the school a diversity index of 80%. About 20% of students have IEPs and the economic need index of 55.8 suggests a solidly middle-class-to-mixed-income population. With nearly 1,200 students across three grades, your child will encounter a wide range of peers. The PTA brings in just $5 per student compared to a district average of about $56 — that gap usually means fewer big-ticket fundraising events, which can affect enrichment budgets, though it doesn't appear to have hurt the program catalog itself.

Marine Park is a family-oriented southeast Brooklyn neighborhood anchored around its namesake park and the waterways of Jamaica Bay, drawing a mix of long-time residents and young families. The school's 1,189 students draw from this neighborhood and surrounding areas, and the census snapshot for the immediate area is masked in the data we have, so we can't quote specific income or education figures here. What we can say is that this is a place where middle-class family life is the norm and the middle school serves as a real community hub. The demographic mix at the school — solidly multiracial with no single group above 35% — tracks the kind of mixed southeast Brooklyn population that has settled here over generations.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, so families here rely on school buses, city buses, or driving — this is a car-dependent commute for most students.