P.S. 297 Abraham Stockton

The school's trajectory is one of the more dramatic turnarounds in District 14: ELA proficiency rose from 18.3% in 2016 to 73.9% in 2025, and math from 25.6% to 80.9%, with both subjects now sitting roughly 11 and 21 percentage points above the district averages of 62.4% and 59.5%. Gains accelerated notably after 2022, with ELA jumping 28 points between 2024 and 2025 — a single-year leap worth watching as much as celebrating. Fifth graders are posting the strongest results (90.3% ELA, 87.5% math), suggesting upper-grade instruction in particular is clicking.

The day-to-day feel is unusually warm: parent satisfaction, parent-teacher trust, and parent-principal trust all sit at 99%, with a 96% family survey response rate confirming families are deeply engaged. Discipline is essentially a non-issue — zero suspensions across three reported years — and teachers report strong collegial trust at 87%. Two things parents should weigh: chronic absenteeism runs at 59.3%, well above what most families hope for, and teacher-reported safety (93%) and teacher instruction quality (90%) both come in somewhat below district averages, even though the school's own attendance rate (89.7%) is just a touch above typical.

P.S. 297 serves a student body that's 54% Hispanic and 40% Black, with very small shares of Asian, White, and multiracial students — a mix that mirrors the surrounding Bed-Stuy (West) neighborhood, where roughly 28% of households live below the poverty line and median income runs around $77,685. The economic need index is high (87.7), and 23% of students have IEPs. Despite those resource pressures, families show up at an extraordinary rate — the family survey hit 96% participation — in a neighborhood where homeownership sits at just 20%.

Bedford-Stuyvesant (West) is a family-dense corner of central Brooklyn where most residents rent and the population leans working-class and middle, with nearly half of adults holding a bachelor's degree and median home values above $1.2 million despite a roughly 28% poverty rate. The school is within a short walk of two G-train stops, making the commute easier than it is for many more bus-dependent parts of the neighborhood.

The G stops at Myrtle-Willoughby Avenues and Flushing Avenue are each about a five-minute walk, with the M and J at Lorimer Street roughly ten minutes on foot.