At a Glance
A small screened middle school where parent trust is sky-high and academic gains are real, but still catching up.
Best suited for
Families seeking a small, screened middle school where parent voices are genuinely heard and academic growth is happening year over year — a fit for families who prioritize tight community and restorative discipline over top proficiency numbers, and who want their child in a setting where teachers and families are on the same team even if test outcomes still trail the district.
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
- Sky-high parent trust — 96% parent-teacher trust and 93% parent satisfaction, both above district averages
- Screened middle school with a tiny enrollment of just 75 students, allowing real individual attention
- Genuinely improving academics — ELA proficiency nearly doubled since 2016
- Restorative culture built into the school's identity: Restorative Circles, Peer Mediation, and Advisory
- Unusually low suspension rate, well under the district average
- Diverse extracurricular offerings including martial arts, swimming, cooking, school newspaper, and talent show
Things to consider
- Test scores remain well below district averages in both ELA and math — about half the district rate
- Chronic absenteeism of 51.4% is a serious concern that parents should ask about directly
- PTA fundraising is minimal at $26 per student compared to a district average of nearly $438 — resources are tight
- Teacher collegial trust sits at just 67%, notably lower than the strong family-side numbers — staff culture may be strained
- 28% of students have IEPs, which means strong special education support but also reflects significant learning needs across the school
- Screened admissions — families need to research the criteria and put this on their list deliberately
Based on 2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 13
Restoration Academy sits at the lower end of its District 13 peer group, with an overall score of 0.94 against peers like P.S. 011 Purvis J. Behan and The Emily Warren Roebling School, both in the 90s. It's a fundamentally different school from those higher-rated options — smaller, more specialized, serving a student body with much higher economic need (88.7 vs a typical district school) and a near-absence of PTA fundraising. The peer comparison is real, and parents should weigh what Restoration offers against the alternatives.
Academics
With ELA proficiency at 25.8% and math at 21.1%, Restoration sits well below the district averages of roughly 53% and 46%. But the trajectory is genuinely encouraging — ELA has nearly doubled from 14.1% in 2016, and math scores have climbed from 12.8% to 21.1% over the same period. Students here are catching up, not yet leading. Eighth graders outperform sixth graders in both subjects, suggesting the school grows readers and mathematicians over time. The 0.94 overall score places this well below the district average of 1.98.
Culture
The parent survey numbers are striking: 93% parent satisfaction, 96% parent-teacher trust, 94% parent-principal trust, and 100% teacher-reported instruction quality. Families clearly feel heard. The teacher picture is more mixed — only 79% trust the principal and 67% trust their colleagues, noticeably lower than the family-side numbers. Discipline is minimal: just 2 suspensions in 2023-24, well under the district average rate of 1.4%. The day-to-day feel is one of a small, relationship-driven school that families believe in even as staff culture shows some friction.
Community
The student body is 76% Black, with smaller shares of Hispanic (9%), Asian (8%), white (3%), multiracial (3%), and Native American (1%) students. This closely tracks the surrounding Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where the census shows a majority-Black community with a 27.9% poverty rate and a median household income near $77,700. The 88.7 economic need index confirms that most families here qualify for free lunch. With 75 total students and small class sizes around 21, everyone knows each other — it's an unusually tight middle school.
Neighborhood
Bedford-Stuyvesant (West) is a Brooklyn neighborhood with deep roots and an ongoing story of change. Median home values have climbed to roughly $1.27 million, reflecting the gentrification pressure reshaping much of central Brooklyn. About 15.7% of households have children, and nearly half of adults hold a bachelor's degree. The poverty rate sits at 27.9%, and homeownership is low at 20.4%, meaning most families rent. It remains a family-oriented community where longtime residents and newer arrivals share the same blocks.
Three subway stations are within reach: Nostrand Av (A and C trains) about a 5-minute walk, Kingston-Throop Avs (C train) about 6 minutes, and Franklin Av (S train) roughly 11 minutes on foot.
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
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science 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) · 72 families responded (79% rate)
Programs & Activities
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
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. Restoration Academy admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Satellite East Middle SchoolScreened49 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.
- 2Screened programs rank 4th-grade course grades, so last year's report card is the one that counts.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
Join the small school with a big heart
Mon, Nov 9, · 9:00 AM · In person
Join the small school with a big heart
Tue, Nov 10, · 9:00 AM · In person
Join the small school with a big heart
Mon, Nov 16, · 9:00 AM · In person
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
Make this school part of your plan
Everything on this page is yours to read. An account keeps your research in one place.
No credit card required
Compare head-to-head
Explore nearby
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Restoration Academy a good school?
- On Motley, Restoration Academy earns an overall rating of 24/100 — 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 13 average.
- What grades does Restoration Academy serve?
- Restoration Academy serves grades 6 to 8.
- How do students get into Restoration Academy?
- Restoration Academy is a screened school — it admits by application, ranking applicants on their course grades (4th grade for middle school, the 7th-grade core-course average for high school); a few schools add an assessment, writing sample, or interview.
- Is Restoration Academy public, charter, or private?
- Restoration Academy is a public school in NYC Community School District 13.
- What neighborhood is Restoration Academy in?
- Restoration Academy is in Bedford-Stuyvesant (West), Brooklyn.