At a Glance
A large Sunset Park zoned school leaning into journalism and tech, where families trust teachers deeply even as test scores trail the district.
Best suited for
Sunset Park families in the zoned area who want a large neighborhood school with a clear journalism-and-tech identity, strong parent voice, and a willingness to be part of the improvement story.
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
- A journalism and technology theme baked into the school's name and identity, unusual for a zoned Brooklyn elementary.
- Parent-teacher trust at 98% and parent-principal trust at 96% — among the strongest family-school bonds in the data.
- Near-zero discipline: just one suspension in each of two of the past three years.
- One of the larger elementary schools in District 20 at 535 students, with the resources that scale can bring.
- A two-minute walk to the N/R at 59 St, making drop-off easy from across Sunset Park and Bay Ridge.
Things to consider
- Test scores sit roughly 25 percentage points below district averages in both ELA and math — a real gap, even with a recent uptick.
- Chronic absenteeism affects more than 4 out of 5 students, which can quietly undermine everything else a school is trying to do.
- PTA fundraising runs about $33 per student, half the district average, so families who want extras may be asked to dig deeper.
- Teacher-principal trust at 78% and teacher-reported safety at 89% are both noticeably below district norms — worth asking current staff about.
- District 20 peers like I.S. 187 and P.S. 127 score 80–94 out of 100; P.S. 506 sits well below that range.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 20
District 20 includes some of Brooklyn's higher-performing elementary schools, and by that measure P.S. 506 is among the lower-scoring campuses — the district average overall score is 2.75/4 versus this school's 1.67/4.
Academics
About 41% of students meet ELA standards and 43% meet math standards, compared with district averages of roughly 66% and 71% — a gap of more than 25 percentage points in both subjects. The longer arc is quietly upward: ELA proficiency has climbed from 33% in 2016 to 40.8% in 2025, the highest score in the eight-year window, despite a dip in 2024. Math has held steadier in the high 30s to low 40s. So students here are catching up, not leading, but the trend line is moving in the right direction.
Culture
The day-to-day feel is calm and connected — only one suspension over the past three years and parent trust scores in the high 90s suggest a school where families feel heard. But 80.8% of students are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), even though the overall attendance rate is a respectable 93.7%. Teacher-principal trust is notably lower at 78%, and teacher-reported safety at 89% trails the district average of about 97% — worth asking about.
Community
The student body is 63% Hispanic and 29% Asian, with smaller shares of White (6%) and Black (1%) students — a mirror of the Sunset Park feeder pattern, where immigrant and first-generation families have long anchored the neighborhood. An economic need index of 89.5% places this firmly among high-need campuses in the city, and 23% of students have IEPs. Diversity index sits at 50%, reflecting the concentration of two large groups rather than wide spread.
Neighborhood
Sunset Park (West) is a renter-majority neighborhood — only about a quarter of households own their place — with median household income just over $81,000 and a poverty rate around 17%. Nearly one in five households has children, and the area's identity is shaped by its mix of Hispanic and Asian residents, many of them working-class and immigrant. The school sits within a few minutes of three subway stations, so getting here from almost anywhere in the neighborhood is straightforward.
The 59 St stop on the N and R trains is about a two-minute walk, and the 53 St (R) is roughly eight minutes on foot, making this one of the easier commutes in the district.
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) · 220 families responded (67% 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
Kindergarten
P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology 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. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology earns an overall rating of 42/100 — 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 20 average.
- What grades does P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology serve?
- P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology serves grades K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology?
- P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology is a public school in NYC Community School District 20.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology in?
- P.S. 506: The School of Journalism & Technology is in Sunset Park (West), Brooklyn.