P.S. 026 Jesse Owens

ELA proficiency of 56.3% sits just below the district average of 57.6%, while math at 45.1% trails the district's 57.0% by a wide margin. The school has been climbing back since the pandemic dip — 2022 ELA was 46.7% and math 41.6% — and 2025 ELA is now near the pre-pandemic peak of 57.5%. Math has improved more slowly and still hasn't returned to its 2019 high of 56.9%. There's a striking grade-level split: Grade 3 ELA at 69.2% is genuinely strong, but Grade 5 math drops to 29.6% — a real weakness that drags the school's overall score of 2.03/4 below the district average of 2.29/4.

The school feels warm and well-led by every measure except attendance. Parents report 96% satisfaction and 98% trust in both the principal and their child's teacher — well above district averages — and the family survey response rate of 94% shows families are unusually engaged. Teachers give the school a perfect 100% safety score and report strong collegial trust at 90%. Zero suspensions over three years is remarkable. The catch: chronic absenteeism sits at 57.5%, meaning more than half of students miss enough school to be flagged — even though overall attendance (87.8%) is only slightly below the district average of 88.7%. This is a school where families love the climate but daily attendance is the real battle.

Sixty-one percent of students are Black and 27% Hispanic, with small White and Asian minorities — a body that closely mirrors the surrounding Bed-Stuy neighborhood, where median household income is about $70,755 and 23% of residents live below the poverty line. Twenty-six percent of students have IEPs, well above typical, and the economic need index of 74.2 signals real financial pressure on most families. And yet the PTA raised $35,615 this year — roughly $191 per student, nearly three times the district average — a striking signal of parent investment in a community where homeownership sits at just 26.7%.

Bedford-Stuyvesant (East) is a historically Black neighborhood that has been changing for years: median home values now top $1.1 million even as 23% of residents live below the poverty line and median household income sits around $70,755. About 40.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and only 11.9% of households include children under 18 — so families with school-age kids are a minority here, but a vocal and engaged one. The Kosciuszko Street J train is a four-minute walk from the school, with the Myrtle Avenue M, J, and Z stop about nine minutes away and Central Avenue M about ten minutes — a genuinely well-connected commute by Brooklyn standards.

Kosciuszko St (J) is about a 4-minute walk; Myrtle Av (M, J, Z) is about 9 minutes; Central Av (M) is about 10 minutes.