Success Academy Charter School - Bushwick

The academics here are genuinely outstanding. ELA proficiency at 94.9% and math at 97.2% are roughly double the district averages of about 46% and 43% respectively, and the overall quality score of 3.84/4 sits far above the district's 1.78. Math has been remarkably steady over the past five years (never dipping below 95%), and ELA dipped to 85.6% in 2023 before rebounding sharply to 94.9% in 2025. Third graders edge out fourth graders slightly in both subjects, but the spread is small — this is a school where almost every grade is performing near the top of the city.

The climate numbers are the real trade-off here. Daily attendance is solid at 94.4%, beating the district average of 91.9%, and the school keeps an average class size of 20.8. But the suspension rate of 12% is roughly ten times the district average of 1.2%, and it has climbed over three consecutive years (70 suspensions in 2021-22, 103 in 2022-23, 106 in 2023-24). The family survey had a 1% response rate with only four responses, so there's essentially no parent-feedback data to interpret — your own visits and conversations with current families will matter more than the official numbers here.

The student body is 74% Hispanic, 17% Black, and 5% White, with a diversity index of 48% — fairly homogeneous for Brooklyn but broadly reflective of the surrounding Bushwick neighborhood. The economic need index of 79.5% means about four in five students come from low-income households, and 10% have IEPs. Families choose this school through the charter lottery rather than being zoned in, which tends to attract parents actively seeking a structured academic environment.

Bushwick (East) is a densely populated, largely renter neighborhood where the median household income is about $67,000, roughly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, and only about 12% of households have children. Around a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and homeownership sits at 20.5%, though the median home value is high near $950,000 — a sign of how much prices have shifted in recent years. It's a working-class, Latino-rooted neighborhood with a growing small-business and arts scene.

The school is well-served by transit. The M at Knickerbocker Avenue is about a four-minute walk, the J and Z at Gates Avenue is around ten minutes, and the L at DeKalb Avenue is roughly eleven minutes on foot.