Original Research by School Decision on Success Academy Charter School-fort Greene
Success Academy Charter School-Fort Greene is a very young charter district serving kindergarten and first grade, currently operating as a small early-elementary program. The school has undergone a significant transformation. It was originally a middle school serving grades five through eight in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, but in late 2023 it converted to a K-1 elementary school and relocated to the Sheepshead Bay area, roughly seven to eight miles away. That relocation and grade restructuring means any family considering this school should understand it no longer serves the middle-grade population or location it once did. The school is authorized to grow toward grades K-3 or K-4, but currently enrolls only a small group of students across two grades.
The student population is racially and ethnically mixed, with roughly equal shares of white and Black students, along with a meaningful share of Asian students and smaller populations of Hispanic, multiracial, and Native American students. The school does not report free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility or special education and English-learner counts, so a parent cannot assess from this data what share of students face economic hardship or what support services are available for those populations.
State assessment data is not available, which is typical for schools serving only the earliest grades; New York does not administer state tests in kindergarten and first grade. That means there is no direct measure of academic proficiency to report. The school's position within Kings County districts can be seen in one metric: chronic absenteeism. This school shows a substantially lower chronic absenteeism rate than the typical district in the county, a sign of strong attendance and engagement. Per-pupil spending is in the lower range compared to other county districts, though this figure can reflect the school's very small enrollment and early stage of development rather than a constraint on resources.
The district is part of the larger Success Academy network, which has publicly reported a network-wide curriculum overhaul called the Education Moonshot, a college-preparedness-focused redesign of K-12 content going into full effect in the 2024-25 school year. That redesign, along with reported teacher salary increases, represents a lasting pedagogical and curricular shift that distinguishes the educational approach families would be choosing.
For a parent evaluating this school, the key realities are its newness as an elementary operation, its location in Sheepshead Bay rather than Fort Greene, and its status as a small, just-launched program with no tested grades yet. A parent considering enrollment would want to speak directly with the school about its growth plans, curriculum implementation timeline, and the specific services available for students with different learning needs.
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