Success Academy Charter School - Prospect Heights

In plain numbers: this school crushes district averages. The 96.9% ELA and 98% math proficiency rates sit roughly 36 and 41 percentage points above the District 17 averages — that's not a modest gap, it's a chasm. The trajectory is also worth understanding: math has been consistently strong for years (mostly 95%+) with one pandemic-era dip in 2022, while ELA had a real slide from 2019 (86.8%) down to 68.8% in 2023 before snapping back to 96.9% in 2025. The Grade 3 and Grade 4 scores (95-98% in both subjects) suggest the rebound isn't being carried by one cohort — it's schoolwide. The 3.9 out of 4 overall score places this near the top of the city.

Here's the honest part of this profile: with only 1 family survey response and a 0% response rate, there's essentially no family-voice data to interpret — that's unusually low even for schools where parental engagement is a known challenge. The attendance rate of 90.9% is roughly at the district average (91%), but the chronic absenteeism figure of 66.1% is striking and cuts against the otherwise elite profile. That number means two out of three students missed 10% or more of the school year, which is a real signal worth understanding even at a high-achieving school. Without survey data on trust, safety, or instruction quality, parents will need to lean on visits and conversations with other families to gauge the day-to-day feel.

The student body is 70% Black and 23% Hispanic, with small percentages of Asian, White, multiracial, and Native American students — a population that's predominantly Black and Latino and largely lower-income (economic need index of 72.5). 16% of students have IEPs, which is meaningful for families seeking inclusion. The surrounding Crown Heights neighborhood looks different demographically than the school: 42.4% of nearby adults have a bachelor's degree and median home values sit above $1 million, suggesting the school serves a more working-class population than the blocks around it. Success Academy's network model also draws families from beyond the immediate neighborhood.

The school sits in the northern part of Crown Heights, a Brooklyn neighborhood where median household income is about $73,859, roughly 20% of residents live in poverty, and only 11% of households have children — a relatively low share that hints at a lot of young professionals and renters alongside families. Home values are steep (median over $1 million) and homeownership is low at 16.4%, which is typical of pre-war Brooklyn brownstone and small-multifamily blocks. It's a transit-accessible part of the borough rather than a car-dependent one, which matters for families without vehicles.

Families can reach the school via the 3 train at Nostrand Av (about a 6-minute walk), the S at Park Pl (about a 7-minute walk), or the 2/5 at President St–Medgar Evers College (about a 9-minute walk) — multiple options across a few different lines.