At a Glance
A tiny, family-funded Clinton Hill zoned school with sky-high parent trust and an academic climb just getting underway.
Best suited for
A family that wants a small, tight-knit zoned school, is ready to engage as an invested parent, and values a calm, trusting culture over headline test scores.
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
- Just 103 students total — close to one section per grade, making for an unusually intimate school day.
- PTA raises roughly $1,155 per student, nearly triple the district average of $438.
- Parent satisfaction and trust in both teachers and leadership hover between 98% and 99%.
- Essentially a no-suspension school — a single suspension across three years.
- 2025 state test scores show the steepest year-over-year gains in nearly a decade for both ELA and math.
Things to consider
- Test scores remain well below district averages, even after the 2025 jump — one strong year does not yet establish a trajectory.
- Chronic absenteeism of 35% is the school's most pressing day-to-day challenge, with an unusual pattern concentrated among female students.
- Teacher rating of instructional quality (71%) sits meaningfully below the district average of 88%.
- The student body does not mirror the affluent surrounding neighborhood — families moving into Clinton Hill should not assume the school will look like its block.
- Small enrollment means fewer peer relationships and a thin staff (only 14 teachers responded to the climate survey).
Based on 2023-24 data
School SummaryDistrict 13
District 13 includes some of Brooklyn's stronger elementary options — including P.S. 11 (96/100) and the Emily Warren Roebling School (91/100) — and P.S. 270 sits well below those peers and the district average. As a zoned school in a district with selective alternatives, families here are typically choosing neighborhood stability over top-tier results.
Academics
On the most recent state tests, 29% of students met ELA proficiency and 22% met math proficiency — well below the district averages of roughly 53% and 46%. The school's overall quality score of 1.03 out of 4 sits roughly a full point below the district average of 1.98. The encouraging story is trajectory: ELA has climbed from 12% in 2016 to 29% in 2025, and math rebounded from a 2022 low of 7% to 22%, with 2025 marking the sharpest year-over-year gain in years for both subjects.
Culture
Parents feel deeply connected to the school — 98% are satisfied, and trust in teachers and the principal both reach 99%. Teachers report a safe environment (98%) and strong collegial trust (88%), though only 71% rate instructional quality positively, well below the district's 88%. Discipline is minimal: just one suspension across three school years. The biggest day-to-day flag is attendance: 84.5% school-wide (vs. 89% district average) and a chronic absenteeism rate of 35%, driven by a striking gender gap — girls are chronically absent at nearly 48%, boys at 19%.
Community
The student body is 59% Black, 31% Hispanic, and 10% Asian, with 24% of students classified as having IEPs and an economic need index of 87 — a high-need population that does not match its surroundings. At just 103 students, the building runs close to a single section per grade, which shapes the social experience as much as the academic one. The school's demographics stand in stark contrast to the affluence of the surrounding Clinton Hill blocks.
Neighborhood
Clinton Hill is one of Brooklyn's more affluent brownstone neighborhoods — median household income near $119,000, 71% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and the median home value tops $1.1 million. Only about 14% of households have children, a sign that most residents are adults without school-age kids. The mismatch between the area's resources and the school's high-need enrollment is one of the most important things for parents to understand before assuming the school reflects its block.
Classon Avenue (G train) is about a two-minute walk, Clinton-Washington Avenues (G) is seven minutes, and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues (G) is about eight 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) · 104 families responded (85% rate)
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. 270 Johann DeKalb 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
P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb has an attendance zone. At elementary level, in-zone students get a guaranteed seat. Every family still applies on MySchools: the application confirms the zoned seat, and ranking other schools doesn't cost you it.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Check that your address is inside the zone — zones change, so confirm it before you sign a lease.
- 2Apply during the kindergarten application, even with a zoned seat.
- 3Rank this school along with any others you'd take, in true preference order.
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. 270 Johann DeKalb a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb earns an overall rating of 26/100 — 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 13 average.
- What grades does P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb serve?
- P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb?
- P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb is a public school in NYC Community School District 13.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb in?
- P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb is in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.