Original Research by School Decision on Achievement First Aspire Charter School
Achievement First Aspire Charter School is a charter district operating in Brooklyn, serving a small, tight-knit student population from kindergarten through tenth grade, with a connected pathway through an affiliated high school, Achievement First Ujima, that opened in 2021 and serves grades nine through twelve.
The school enrolls a small overall population split fairly evenly across the grades it serves. The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population and small numbers of students from other backgrounds. Precise counts on students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and on students with disabilities or English learners are not available in the data, so parents may want to ask the school directly about services for students with those needs.
State academic testing data is not reported for this school, making it impossible to assess proficiency levels or trends in reading, math, or other tested subjects. Without these figures, a parent cannot compare how students here are performing against peers across the state or county. This gap is worth raising directly with the school when considering enrollment, since the assessment results form the clearest window into academic outcomes. The school does not report a graduation rate, which applies because the entity in the data includes only kindergarten through tenth grade; Achievement First Ujima High School, the affiliated grades-nine-through-twelve school, is listed as a separate entity and may report its own outcomes.
The school operates as a charter, which means it is publicly funded but independently managed and held to a charter agreement. In 2024, the SUNY Charter Schools Institute recommended renewal of the broader Achievement First Brooklyn charter through the 2029-30 school year, giving families institutional continuity and a multi-year assurance the school will remain open. The addition of Ujima High School in 2021 means families enrolling young students now have a documented K-12 pathway within the Aspire charter network rather than having to transition elsewhere for high school, a significant operational advantage for school stability.
On attendance, the school reports a chronic absenteeism rate that places it in the bottom quartile among the county's districts. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand both the causes and what supports exist for families managing attendance challenges. Per-pupil spending falls in the lower-middle range for Kings County districts, neither lean nor high-resource.
The school's small enrollment and K-10 structure suggest an intimate setting where staff and families are likely to know one another well. For families seeking a charter environment with a continuous K-12 track and a predominantly Black peer community in Brooklyn, this school offers that pathway. For families who prioritize seeing detailed academic proficiency data before enrollment, the absence of state testing results here is a significant limitation that warrants direct conversation with school leadership.
See more original research from School Decision →