P.S./ I.S. 155 Nicholas Herkimer

Proficiency trails District 23 meaningfully — 36.4% in ELA vs. a district average near 52%, and 34.9% in math vs. about 50.5%. Science proficiency is 23.5%. The trajectory tells a more interesting story than the snapshot: in 2016 the school posted just 14% ELA and 15.6% math, and scores climbed substantially through 2023, when ELA hit 47.1% and math reached a peak of 57.9%. Since then both subjects have pulled back — ELA to 36.4% and math to 34.9% in 2025. Third grade is the clear bright spot (72.2% ELA, 77.3% math), but there's a steep drop in 4th and 5th grade scores, suggesting the upper elementary years are where the school loses ground.

The internal culture here is the school's biggest asset. Teacher trust in the principal is 100%, and teacher-rated instruction quality is also 100% — essentially every respondent gave the school top marks. Parent-teacher trust (92%) and parent-principal trust (93%) are also very strong, and 94% say there are strong relationships. The flip side is that teacher-reported safety sits at 83%, below the district's roughly 90%, and chronic absenteeism is high at 47.2% — nearly half the students missed enough school to be flagged. Attendance overall (86.8%) is slightly below the district's 88.6%. Discipline is light but creeping up: suspensions went from 3 in 2021-22 to 3 in 2022-23 to 5 in 2023-24, putting the suspension rate at 2%, a touch above the district's 1.6%. Day-to-day, this reads as a school where adults are aligned and families feel heard, but where getting kids in the door consistently is a real challenge.

The student body is overwhelmingly Black (44%) and Hispanic (51%), with small numbers of Asian, white, and multiracial students. This mirrors Ocean Hill's demographics and the broader East Brooklyn pattern. The school's economic need index is 89 — very high — meaning most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and 21% have IEPs. About 2% of students are English language learners, supported by an ELL program.

Ocean Hill is a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood where most residents rent (homeownership is just under 21%) and the median household income is around $57,870. Roughly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, and only about 24% of adults hold a bachelor's degree. Despite the economic pressures, families with kids make up a meaningful slice of the area, and the school sits within a tight residential pocket where many students can walk. The C train and the A/C and J/Z at Broadway Junction put the school within a short walk of three subway lines, making it genuinely easy to reach from anywhere on the eastern Brooklyn transit grid.

Three subway lines are within a short walk: the C at Rockaway Avenue (about 4 minutes) and the A/C and J/Z at Broadway Junction (about 4 and 6 minutes respectively) — making this one of the easier-to-reach schools by transit in the area.