Success Academy Charter School - Crown Heights

By District 17 standards these numbers are striking: ELA proficiency at 93.9% runs about 33 points above the district average of 60.5%, and math proficiency at 97.9% towers over the district's 57.3%. The historical arc tells a real comeback story — scores held in the mid-90s pre-pandemic, dropped sharply (ELA bottoming at 70.9% in 2022), and have now climbed back near pre-pandemic highs. The grade-level breakdown is the most distinctive feature: third-grade ELA sits at 78.3%, while seventh- and eighth-graders hit 100% in math. Students appear to accelerate substantially as they progress, which is unusual and worth understanding — the school seems to find its rhythm with time, delivering the strongest outcomes for families who stay enrolled through middle school.

Daily attendance runs solid at 93.4%, about two points above the district average of 91%, suggesting the families who are engaged show up consistently. However, the chronic absenteeism figure reported at 78.1% is striking and worth asking the school about directly — these two data points together suggest a small group of students miss substantial amounts of school even as most arrive daily. The family survey response rate was just 1% (4 responses), which means parent-reported data on trust, safety, and satisfaction is essentially uninterpretable. Families evaluating the school will need to lean on visits and conversations with current parents rather than survey numbers.

The student body is 85% Black, with Hispanic students making up another 10% — a near-mirror of the surrounding Crown Heights neighborhood. The economic need index of 66.4 means most students come from lower-income households, consistent with the neighborhood's median income of around $70,000. Fourteen percent of students have IEPs. Class size averages 22, matching the district average, and total enrollment of 872 is moderate-sized for a K-8 campus.

Crown Heights (South) is a working-class, majority-Black Brooklyn neighborhood where median household income sits around $70,300 and about one in five residents lives below the poverty line. Just 14% of households own their homes, and 14% include children — most blocks are filled with renters, many of them long-time residents. About 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, a rate that trails the borough overall but is solid for South Brooklyn.

Three nearby subway stations make this an easy commute: the 2/5 trains at President St–Medgar Evers College (about a 4-minute walk) and Sterling St (about a 5-minute walk), plus the 3 train at Nostrand Av (about a 6-minute walk).