Riverdale Avenue Middle School

Riverdale's ELA proficiency of 37.8% is meaningfully below the district average of 52.2%, and its math proficiency of 22.6% is less than half the district average of 50.5%. The overall quality score of 1.21 out of 4 also sits well below the district's 2.06. The good news is the trajectory: ELA has roughly doubled since 2019 (from 16.4% to 37.8%), and math has climbed off a low base (from 13.2% in 2016 to 22.6% in 2025, recovering from a near-collapse to 2.5% in 2022). One striking grade-level split shows up in math — sixth-graders tested at 80% proficiency, seventh-graders at 17.2%, and eighth-graders at just 5%, which is the kind of cliff that suggests either a cohort effect or a support gap as students age up through the school.

Families clearly feel connected here — 94% parent satisfaction, 95% parent-teacher trust, and an 83% family survey response rate all signal a community where parents are paying attention. Teachers report strong trust in the principal (92%) and in one another (86%), though teacher-rated instructional quality sits at 80%, noticeably below the district's 89.4%. Attendance is a bright spot at 92.2%, beating the district's 88.6%. The trade-off is discipline: suspensions climbed from zero in 2021-22 to six in 2022-23 to ten in 2023-24, putting the suspension rate at 9% — roughly six times the district average of 1.58%. Chronic absenteeism is also high at 68.3%, meaning more than two-thirds of students missed enough school days to be flagged. The day-to-day feel is a school where families trust the adults, but where classroom consistency and student behavior are real work-in-progress areas.

With just 128 students, Riverdale Avenue is small enough that staff likely know most kids by name. The student body is 67% Black and 27% Hispanic, with smaller Asian, White, and Native American shares — a profile that mirrors Brownsville's demographics. The economic need index of 93.5% indicates nearly all students come from low-income households, and 34% have IEPs, which is high and means a meaningful share of the building receives special education services. ELL Support is available for English learners. Despite the resource stretch, parents show up at survey rates well above what you'd expect.

Brownsville is one of Brooklyn's lower-income neighborhoods, with a median household income around $33,500 and a poverty rate of 37.6%. Only about 14% of households own their homes, and just 7.9% include children — a relatively small share of family households in a neighborhood often associated with young renters and multigenerational homes. Just 13.4% of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the median home value sits near $482,000, reflecting Brooklyn's broader market more than local buying power.

The 3 train is the workhorse here — Saratoga Avenue is about a four-minute walk, Rockaway Avenue about seven minutes, and Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road about twelve minutes.