At a Glance
A Brownsville elementary that went from 13% to 63% on the state ELA test, with teachers and families who actually trust each other.
Best suited for
Brownsville families who want a small, tight-knit elementary with unusually strong teacher-family trust and a documented record of academic improvement — especially those who'll use the 3 or L train to get there.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- Dramatic academic turnaround: ELA proficiency rose from roughly 13% in 2016 to 63% in 2025, with math following the same arc.
- Survey scores that beat district averages by wide margins — 95% parent satisfaction, 99% teacher instruction quality, 98% teacher-reported safety.
- Suspensions collapsed from 14 to 1 over two years, suggesting a real shift in how the school handles behavior.
- A program richness score of 100/100 is unusual for a school this small — chess, coding, gardening, choir, peer mediation, and Urban Arts are all on offer.
- Three subway lines within a 9-minute walk make it genuinely easy to reach from elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism is high at 61.5% — a citywide issue, but boys (66.7%) miss notably more school than girls (55.8%).
- Grade 5 proficiency lags Grade 4 by a wide margin on both subjects; ask the school what's happening in that grade.
- It's a small school (244 students), so the peer group is tight and elective choices are more limited than at a larger campus.
- The surrounding neighborhood poverty rate (37.6%) brings real economic headwinds that shape families' day-to-day realities.
- PTA fundraising is modest at $12 per student, on par with the district average but well below what more resourced schools raise.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 23
District 23's average overall score is 2.06 out of 4; P.S. 041's 2.56 puts it well above the typical school and competitive with the district's top performers like Brooklyn Landmark Elementary.
Academics
The 2025 proficiency rates — 63.4% ELA and 64.4% math — land well above the District 23 averages of 52.2% and 50.5%. The trajectory tells the real story: this school spent years stuck in the teens before jumping to 39.7% ELA and 53.4% math in 2024, then climbing again in 2025. The Grade 4 cohort is particularly strong at 80% ELA and 81.5% math, though Grade 5 dips to 52.2% ELA and 43.5% math — worth asking the school what changes between those grades.
Culture
The survey numbers here are striking: 95% parent satisfaction, 96% parent-teacher trust, 99% of teachers rate instruction quality highly, and 98% of teachers say students feel safe — all well above district averages. Discipline has nearly disappeared, falling from 14 suspensions in 2021-22 to 3 to just 1 in 2023-24. The one concern is chronic absenteeism at 61.5%, a citywide issue but worth tracking; boys (66.7%) miss more school than girls (55.8%).
Community
About 244 students attend, mostly Black (59%) and Hispanic (33%), reflecting the Brownsville population around them. Nearly a quarter of students have IEPs, and ELL support is on offer. The surrounding neighborhood skews low-income — over a third of households live in poverty — but the school's diversity index of 54% suggests it draws from a meaningful mix of backgrounds within those demographics.
Neighborhood
Brownsville is a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood where most households rent (only 14% own their homes) and median household income sits around $33,000. About 8% of households have children under 18, and only 13.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Three nearby subway stops make the commute easy for families across the borough.
Three nearby subway stops make the commute easy — the 3 train at Rockaway Avenue (4-minute walk), Junius Street (7 minutes), and the L at Livonia Avenue (9 minutes).
Academic Performance
ELA Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State ELA exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Math Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Math exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Historical Trends
The dashed line marks 2023, when New York changed its grades 3–8 state tests. Scores before and after it aren’t directly comparable.
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 143 families responded (89% rate)
Programs & Activities
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
PTA Fundraising
Source: DOE Local Law 171 disclosure
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 041 Francis White also has Pre-K classes. They're a separate application from kindergarten, made on MySchools.
Pre-K application
Applications typically open in the winter and close in the spring, with offers in late spring; the city announces exact dates each year.
Kindergarten
District 23 is a school-choice district, so it has no elementary zones: no address guarantees a seat at P.S. 041 Francis White. Families across the district apply on MySchools, and seats go to priority groups first (siblings, then families in the district), then by random lottery.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the kindergarten application.
- 2Rank every school you'd accept, in true preference order — with no zoned seat to fall back on, a longer list matters.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is P.S. 041 Francis White a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 041 Francis White earns an overall rating of 64/100 — the average of the school's New York State ELA and math proficiency, grades 3–8, shown out of 100. Its state test results run above the District 23 average.
- What grades does P.S. 041 Francis White serve?
- P.S. 041 Francis White serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 041 Francis White?
- P.S. 041 Francis White admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 041 Francis White public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 041 Francis White is a public school in NYC Community School District 23.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 041 Francis White in?
- P.S. 041 Francis White is in Brownsville, Brooklyn.