At a Glance
A small pre-K-to-8 neighborhood school in Bed-Stuy where families trust the principal even as the school rebuilds its academics
Best suited for
Families who live in the Clara Cardwell zone and want a single pre-K-through-8 school (avoiding the middle-school transition), and who are ready to be active partners around attendance and academics — this school is climbing, but it needs families who show up with it.
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
- Pre-K through 8th grade in one building means no middle-school application or transition
- 100% parent-principal trust — an unusually strong vote of confidence in school leadership
- Math proficiency climbed from 4.6% in 2016 to 18.3% in 2025, a nearly fourfold increase
- Program richness score of 100, with an unusually wide array of activities from Taekwondo and Coding to Guitar, Yearbook, and Dance
- Unscreened zone-based admissions — your address is your ticket
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism affects 55% of students — consistent school attendance is the building's biggest open challenge
- ELA and math proficiency both remain well below the District 16 average
- Suspension rate of 2% runs slightly above the 1% district average
- Small enrollment of 251 means fewer peer cohorts and narrower elective options than larger schools
- Survey response rates are low (11% family, 11 teacher responses), so the trust and satisfaction numbers reflect a small slice of the community
Based on 2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 16
Clara Cardwell sits at the bottom of the District 16 peer group on overall score, well behind Success Academy Bed-Stuy 3 (95/100), Brooklyn Brownstone (84/100), P.S. 040 (83/100), Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings (83/100), P.S. 262 (81/100), and P.S. 005 (79/100). Among the schools listed, this is the lowest-rated zoned option — but its academic trajectory in the last several years is sharper than most of its neighbors.
Academics
The school's overall 1/4 rating, with 31.6% ELA proficiency and 18.3% math proficiency, both fall far below District 16 averages of roughly 58% ELA and 57% math. But the trend line tells the more interesting story: in 2016, ELA was 10.4% and math was 4.6%. By 2025, ELA had roughly tripled and math had quadrupled. Grade 7 ELA hit 66.7% this year — actually above district average for that cohort — showing the older students are pulling ahead. The 8th-grade math score (11.8%) and 4th-grade performance lag behind, suggesting the elementary-to-middle transition years are where the school still needs the most lift.
Culture
The standout numbers here are the trust scores: 100% of surveyed parents trust the principal, 95% trust their child's teacher, and 86% say they are satisfied overall. Teachers report 90% on safety and 91% trust in leadership. Day-to-day, this reads as a school where adults and families are aligned, even while the building wrestles with bigger challenges. The discipline trend is improving — suspensions spiked to 5 in 2022-23 but dropped to 3 in 2023-24, putting the 2% suspension rate just slightly above the 1% district average. Honest caveat: only 21 parents and 11 teachers responded to the survey, so these are small-sample reads rather than crowd-sourced certainties.
Community
The student body is 74% Black, 17% Hispanic, with small Asian, White, and Native American shares; 89.1% qualify for the economic need index, which roughly tracks the surrounding neighborhood where 23% of households live below the poverty line and median income is around $70,755. With 26% of students on IEPs and ELL support in place, this is a school built around a high-needs population.
Neighborhood
Eastern Bedford-Stuyvesant is a walk-up, brownstone-rowhouse neighborhood where about 12% of households include children, the poverty rate sits at 23%, and 40.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree. Median home values have climbed past $1.1 million, reflecting the broader wave of investment moving through central Brooklyn even as many longtime residents remain.
Three subway options sit within roughly a 10-13 minute walk: the J at Kosciuszko St, the M/J/Z at Myrtle Av, and the C at Kingston-Throop Avs.
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) · 21 families responded (11% rate)
Programs & Activities
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. 308 Clara Cardwell 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. 308 Clara Cardwell 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.
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- The Clara Cardwell Elementary and Middle School (P.S./M.S. 308)Unscreened48 seats
Middle school application
- Opened
- Wed, Oct 14
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 11
- Offers
- Wed, Apr 7
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the middle school application, in 5th grade.
- 2Unscreened programs fill by random lottery among the families who rank them.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
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. 308 Clara Cardwell a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell earns an overall rating of 25/100 — 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 16 average.
- What grades does P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell serve?
- P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell serves grades Pre-K to 8.
- How do students get into P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell?
- P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell is a public school in NYC Community School District 16.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell in?
- P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell is in Bedford-Stuyvesant (East), Brooklyn.