At a Glance
A small Brownsville elementary where academic gains are real and families feel deeply heard
Best suited for
Families in Brownsville who want a small, relationship-driven school with strong family-school trust and are willing to be part of a community actively working to lift chronic absenteeism.
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
- One of the steepest academic improvement trajectories in the dataset — ELA proficiency nearly quadrupled from 2016 to 2025.
- Near-perfect parent-school trust scores (99-100%) that meaningfully outpace the district average.
- A genuinely tiny school of 157 students where average class sizes stay near 20, allowing real relationships.
- Zero suspensions in a district where the average suspension rate is about 1.6% — a notably restorative approach to discipline.
- One in four students has an IEP, suggesting meaningful inclusion practices and special education capacity.
Things to consider
- Test scores still sit meaningfully below district averages in both ELA and math, despite the encouraging trend.
- Chronic absenteeism at 51.9% affects more than half the student body, which can erode instructional momentum even when daily attendance is strong.
- Boys are chronically absent at much higher rates than girls (60.8% vs 43.6%), a gap worth understanding.
- The school serves a high-poverty neighborhood where many families face economic stressors that show up in attendance and readiness.
- The overall school quality score of 1.33/4 places it below most listed district 23 peers, though that score reflects conditions that may already be shifting.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 23
Within District 23, P.S. 150 sits below most of its named peers on the overall quality score, trailing schools like Brooklyn Landmark Elementary and Imagine Me Leadership Charter. Its standout quality is the upward academic trajectory rather than its current standing — a school in motion rather than one already at the top.
Academics
Proficiency rates of 38.1% in ELA and 28.6% in math sit well below the district averages of roughly 52% and 51%, but the multi-year arc is the more important story here. ELA proficiency went from 10.4% in 2016 to 38.1% in 2025 — nearly a fourfold increase — and math climbed from 11.5% to 28.6% over the same period. The 2024-25 jump is the largest single-year gain in the dataset, suggesting something has clicked recently rather than a slow, steady climb.
Culture
The day-to-day feel here is warm and relational, with 100% of teachers reporting strong peer relationships and 99-100% trust between parents and school leadership — far above the district norm. Discipline is essentially non-punitive, with zero suspensions in 2023-24 compared to a district average suspension rate of about 1.6%. The major climate concern is chronic absenteeism at 51.9% — meaning more than half of students miss enough school to be flagged — though regular attendance at 88.8% tracks with the district average. Boys are absent at notably higher rates than girls (60.8% vs 43.6%), a pattern worth asking the school about.
Community
The student body is 58% Black and 36% Hispanic, with small slivers of Asian, white, and multiracial students — a profile that closely mirrors the Brownsville neighborhood around it. With 157 total students and an average class size of 19.7, classrooms are small enough for teachers to know kids by name. About a quarter of students have IEPs, reflecting the school's role serving students with a range of learning needs.
Neighborhood
Brownsville is a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood where median household income sits around $33,500 and more than a third of residents live in poverty. Only about 8% of households include children, and just 14% of homes are owner-occupied — most families rent. Just 13% of neighborhood adults hold a bachelor's degree, which makes the school's recent academic gains feel even more significant given the context families are navigating.
Families can reach the school via the Sutter Av L stop in about 4 minutes, with Junius St (3) and Livonia Av (L) each within roughly 8-9 minutes on foot.
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) · 34 families responded (38% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 150 Christopher 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. 150 Christopher. 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. 150 Christopher a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 150 Christopher earns an overall rating of 33/100 — 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 below the District 23 average.
- What grades does P.S. 150 Christopher serve?
- P.S. 150 Christopher serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 150 Christopher?
- P.S. 150 Christopher admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 150 Christopher public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 150 Christopher is a public school in NYC Community School District 23.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 150 Christopher in?
- P.S. 150 Christopher is in Brownsville, Brooklyn.