Original Research by School Decision on Achievement First Legacy Charter School
Achievement First Legacy Charter School is a newly established charter that opened in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens in the school year starting in 2020-21, beginning with kindergarten and expanding by one grade each year. The enrollment data reflects this young trajectory: the school currently serves only kindergarten through second grade and is still growing. The overall enrollment is small for its grade band, with roughly equal numbers in each grade level.
The school's student body is predominantly African American, with smaller representation from Hispanic, Asian, and other groups. The demographic composition reflects the neighborhood it serves. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, and English learner status were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about its support structures for economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners.
State testing data for early elementary grades is not available, since New York does not administer proficiency assessments at the kindergarten and first-grade levels the school currently serves. This means no academic performance comparison to other Queens County districts is possible at this stage. The school's academic work is too new and its grades too early to have a graduation rate. A parent interested in the school's instructional quality would need to visit, speak with current families, and ask the school about its curriculum, teaching approach, and early literacy and numeracy outcomes, since publicly reported testing data cannot yet speak to those questions.
The data does show that chronic absenteeism at the school is notably high compared to other districts in Queens County, sitting well above the median. This is a concrete soft spot worth exploring with the school: what factors are driving absences, what outreach or support is the school offering to families, and what does the school see as the path forward on attendance.
Per-pupil spending at the school is in the upper range for Queens County districts, reflecting either the cost structure of operating a charter in the city or deliberate investment in staffing and resources. A parent may find it useful to ask how that spending translates to classroom practice and student support.
The school's future trajectory is part of what makes it relevant to families now. It was authorized to expand from an elementary program to include middle school grades, with charter renewal extending through July 2030. This means families with young children have the prospect of continuity in the same building and school community from kindergarten through eighth grade if the expansion moves forward as planned, rather than needing to transition to a separate middle school. For families drawn to that model, or to the Achievement First network's educational approach, the school represents an early entry point into a program that intends to deepen over time. For families seeking more established track records or broader grade spans right now, it is too young.
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