Uncommon Canarsie Charter School NYC

Students here test well above the district: 66.4% proficiency in ELA (vs. 58.4% district) and 67.8% in math (vs. 61.4% district). The trajectory is the real story — ELA proficiency has roughly doubled since 2016's 32.4%, and math rose from 42.4% to a peak of 72.4% in 2024. Most grades perform strongly, but Grade 8 math is a clear outlier at 36.8% and worth asking about directly for families with rising 8th graders.

On the survey front this school looks excellent: 100% of teachers rate instruction quality positively, parent-teacher trust sits at 97%, and parent-principal trust reaches 98%, signaling a tight-knit school community. Day-to-day attendance at 91.5% is in line with the district average. But chronic absenteeism — kids missing 10% or more of the year — runs at 70.5%, well above what most educators consider acceptable and a metric worth probing at any tour or info session.

Nine in ten students are Black, with small Hispanic, White, Multi-Racial, and Native American populations rounding out the school — a notably less diverse student body than the citywide average (diversity index just 19%). The surrounding Canarsie neighborhood is anchored by middle-income families and roughly 50% homeownership, suggesting most students come from owner-occupied households in southeast Brooklyn. About 1 in 10 students has an IEP.

Canarsie is a stable, middle-class pocket of southeast Brooklyn where roughly half of households own their homes and median household income sits in the low $80,000s. About 15% of households have children under 18, and just over a quarter of adults hold a bachelor's degree. The neighborhood skews Black and Caribbean-American, and weekday rhythms tend to revolve around driving and school pickup more than subway commuting.

Subway riders reach the school via the L train — either East 105 St about a 12-minute walk or Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy about an 11-minute walk — both a real hike rather than a quick hop.