Original Research by School Decision on Constellation Schools: Old Brooklyn Community Elementary
Constellation Schools: Old Brooklyn Community Elementary is a small public charter school serving kindergarten through fourth grade in Cleveland, managed by ACCEL Schools under the Constellation brand. The enrollment sits at about three hundred students, distributed fairly evenly across the five grade levels, with slightly larger cohorts in kindergarten and fourth grade.
The student body is diverse. Roughly one-third of students identify as white, about one-third as Hispanic, and just over one-fifth as Black, with a smaller share identifying as multiracial. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, English learner status, and special education enrollment were not available, so a parent seeking to understand the economic profile or language-support needs of the school community would want to reach out directly to the school or district office.
State assessment data are not available for this school, which is typical for a very small K-4 building; Ohio does not administer statewide tests to kindergarten and first-grade students, and third- and fourth-grade results for this particular school were not reported in the system. This means there is no public snapshot of early literacy or math proficiency here. A parent interested in how the school approaches academic instruction and progress tracking would benefit from asking the school how it measures student growth in reading and math within the building.
Chronic absenteeism at the school sits below the midpoint for districts across Cuyahoga County, which is a positive signal for daily engagement, though absenteeism data alone do not capture the full picture of school climate or student support.
Per-pupil spending is in the lower range compared to other Cuyahoga County districts. This reflects the per-pupil funding model typical of charter schools, which receive state dollars rather than local property tax support. A parent should feel confident asking the school how it deploys those resources to support instruction and student services.
A significant change is taking shape. Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, Ohio law requires all public school districts and charter schools, including this one, to use a state-approved core reading curriculum aligned with the Science of Reading and to discontinue the use of three-cueing methods for reading instruction. All teachers must complete Science of Reading professional development by June of 2025. For a school serving early grades, where reading instruction forms the foundation of all later learning, this is a material shift in classroom practice. Parents considering enrollment should ask the school how it is preparing for and implementing this change and what Science of Reading-aligned materials and instructional approaches it has selected.
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