Middle School for Art and Philosophy

ELA proficiency at 39.6% trails the District 18 average of about 58% by nearly 20 points, and math at 40.4% sits roughly 20 points below the district's 61%. The trend tells a more hopeful story than the snapshot — ELA climbed from 16.8% in 2016 to a peak of 47.6% in 2022, and math rose from 8.2% to 45% in 2023 — though the 2025 dip in ELA (from 46.3% to 39.6%) is worth watching. Results by grade are uneven: Grade 7 students are doing markedly better (52.9% ELA, 64.7% math) than Grade 8 (31.9% ELA, 11.1% math), which suggests the school struggles to keep eighth graders on track as they approach high school applications.

The day-to-day feel here is mixed in interesting ways. Parents rate the school very highly — 98% satisfaction, 97% trust in teachers, 96% trust in the principal — and 97% of families completed the survey, an unusually engaged response. But teacher voices are more cautious: only 81% rate instruction quality positively (district average about 90%), and teacher-principal trust sits at 75% — a gap worth asking about. Attendance is soft at 86% versus the district's 90.5%, and 55% of students are chronically absent, meaning they miss 10% or more of school days. Suspensions ticked up from 3 in 2021-22 to 7 in 2023-24, a higher rate than the district average of roughly 1%, though the trend has flattened.

The student body is overwhelmingly Black (84%) with smaller shares of Hispanic (10%), White (5%), and Native American (1%) students, mirroring East Flatbush-Remsen Village's working-class Caribbean American community. The economic need index of 77.4% — well above the citywide average — signals a school serving mostly low-income families, and 34% of students have IEPs, a notably high share. At 158 students, the school is small enough that staff and families likely know each other by name.

East Flatbush-Remsen Village is a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood with a median household income around $57,600 and a poverty rate near 19%, modest compared to the city as a whole. Just 9% of neighborhood households have children, so families with kids stand out rather than blend in. About 22% of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree and homeownership is low at 23.5%, reflecting a renter-heavy block-by-block community. The school draws from and sits within this neighborhood.

The 3 train is the option — Saratoga Av is the closest stop at about a 7-minute walk, with Sutter Av-Rutland Rd (about 11 minutes) and Rockaway Av (about 14 minutes) as alternates.