New Heights Middle School

ELA proficiency at 36.1% trails the district average of about 60.5%, and math at 25.7% sits far below the district's 57.3%. The longer view is more encouraging — ELA climbed from 10.7% in 2016 to a peak of 45.7% in 2023 before slipping back, while math roughly doubled from 13.2% to 25.7% over the same window. There's a striking grade-by-grade pattern in math: seventh graders hit 40.5%, while eighth graders land at just 14.3%, suggesting students who arrive better prepared hold on while others slide. The overall progress score of 1.24 out of 4 places New Heights below the district average of 2.36, meaning students here are catching up, not leading.

The day-to-day feel is shaped by a striking contrast: families love this school, but teacher buy-in is uneven. Parent satisfaction is 92% (slightly above the district's 91%), parent-teacher trust hits 98%, and parent-principal trust is 95% — these are strong numbers. Teachers, though, give leadership only 71% trust while rating the quality of their own instruction at 100%. Attendance at 92.6% edges out the district average, but chronic absenteeism is alarmingly high at 74.4% — meaning roughly three of every four students miss enough school to be flagged. Discipline is a bright spot: only two suspensions in 2023-24, down from eight the year before.

The student body is 73% Black, 14% Hispanic, with small percentages of Native American, White, Asian, and multiracial students — and an economic need index of 86.2, meaning most students come from low-income households. Twenty percent have IEPs, and the school provides ELL support. The surrounding neighborhood skews more middle-income (median around $73,000) and more racially mixed than the school population itself, which can mean families who push their kids here are deliberately seeking something different from their immediate block.

Prospect Lefferts Gardens–Wingate is a mostly renter neighborhood — only 22.5% of households own their homes, with a median home value around $949,000. Median household income is about $73,345 and the poverty rate is 15.9%, which is roughly average for central Brooklyn. About 9.8% of households have children, and 41.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, suggesting a mix of working-class and professional families.

Getting here takes a bit of a hike — the closest options are the Crown Heights–Utica Avenue station on the 3 and 4 lines (about 11 minutes on foot), Kingston Avenue on the 3 (around 12 minutes), and Sutter Avenue–Rutland Road on the 3 (roughly 15 minutes).