Original Research by School Decision on Icahn Charter School 1
Icahn Charter School 1 is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school located in Bronx County that serves a small student body. The enrollment is stable across grades, with roughly similar cohorts moving through the school, which allows for consistency in classroom size and staffing planning.
The student population is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a substantial majority of students coming from these two groups. The school has very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and on the share of students with special education plans or English learner status was not available, so a reader interested in understanding the school's economic context or support structures for students with specific learning needs would want to reach out directly to the school for that information.
The school operates on an extended day and year calendar using Core Knowledge curriculum, an approach designed to build academic knowledge through a structured, grade-by-grade progression of content across subjects. This model appeals to families seeking a longer school day and a particular pedagogical philosophy, but it is not the standard calendar or curriculum framework used in traditional public schools in the area.
State assessment proficiency data for the school was not available for this review. Without those results, a parent cannot see how the school's students are performing on state tests relative to the school's own past performance or to other schools in the borough. This is a significant gap for understanding academic outcomes. A prospective parent should ask the school directly for recent test results and should compare those numbers to district and state averages.
Chronic absenteeism at the school places it in the top quartile among Bronx County districts, meaning attendance is notably better than the median district in the county. That is a strength and suggests the school may have effective practices for keeping families engaged and students in class.
Per-pupil current spending at the school falls in the middle to lower-middle range among county districts, indicating moderate resource allocation. School choice and charter structure can affect how dollars are spent, and families may want to ask how this translates into specific classroom resources, staffing ratios, or specialized programs.
The school has one campus. Recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts or calendar adjustments were not confirmed through available sources, though the school's extended-day, extended-year Core Knowledge model is well established. Families considering this school should speak with current families and staff about the rhythm of the school year, the homework load, and how the Core Knowledge approach works in practice at the elementary and middle-school levels served here.
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