P.S. 305 Dr. Peter Ray

The 26.5% ELA proficiency and 20.6% math proficiency are roughly half the district averages of 53% and 46% — students here are starting well behind their peers across the district. The four-year trend is the more interesting story: ELA went from 17.6% in 2016 to a peak of 30.3% in 2018, and math jumped from 9.3% to 29.9% in the same window. The 2019 dip back to 26.5% and 20.6% is a pullback, but the overall trajectory from 2016 is still strongly positive. The school's overall score of 0.94 out of 4 is less than half the district average of 1.98.

The split here is stark. Parent satisfaction at 91.6% is above the district average, meaning families who are connected to the school feel good about it. But teacher-reported instruction quality is only 59.8% — well below the district's 87.6% — which suggests teachers may feel under-resourced or unsupported in delivering strong instruction. Chronic absenteeism is the biggest red flag: at 54.6%, more than half the students miss enough school to be flagged, with boys and Black students especially affected (59.6% and 68.7% respectively). That level of absenteeism can explain a lot of the academic gap.

The student body reflects its Bed-Stuy surroundings — predominantly Black and Hispanic families from a neighborhood where median household income is $77,685 and about 28% of residents live below the poverty line. The chronic absenteeism breakdown (Black students at 68.7%, Hispanic at 45.5%) tells you the school serves a community where getting to school every day is a real challenge for many families. Parent satisfaction being strong despite these struggles suggests the school maintains a real connection with the families it serves.

Bedford-Stuyvesant (West) is a dense, walkable stretch of brownstones and low-rise apartment buildings where about 16% of households include children and just over 48% of adults have a bachelor's degree. Median home values around $1.27 million reflect the neighborhood's rapid gentrification, but the 28% poverty rate tells you there's real economic diversity still here — long-time residents and newcomers side by side. It is a neighborhood in transition, with both deep community roots and newer arrivals reshaping the blocks.

The school is reachable by subway, with the A and C trains at Nostrand Avenue about a 9-minute walk, the C at Kingston-Throop about 10 minutes, and the G at Bedford-Nostrand about 10 minutes — so three lines serve the area but none right at the door