Ps 287 Bailey K Ashford, Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps 287 Bailey K Ashford

PS 287 Bailey K. Ashford is a small, early-childhood-focused public school in downtown Brooklyn serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school enrolls a diverse, high-need student population: the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic. The school's enrollment is small, with roughly evenly distributed grade cohorts across its span.

State testing data from the most recent school year show that proficiency in math and English language arts is well below state benchmarks across the tested grades. In third grade, no students met state proficiency standards in math, and roughly two in five did in ELA. Fourth-grade results were similarly strained: roughly one in twenty students achieved proficiency in math, with about three in ten proficient in ELA. Fifth-grade performance was modestly stronger, with about one in five meeting the math standard and slightly more than one in three in ELA. Science proficiency at fifth grade stood at roughly one in four. Across these subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among schools in Kings County. These results suggest that students are working significantly below grade-level expectations, and a parent may want to look into further detail with the school about what instructional supports and remediation are in place, what the school attributes the patterns to, and what year-to-year progress looks like.

The school sits in downtown Brooklyn near the Navy Yard, a neighborhood in the midst of major residential growth and development. The waterfront and surrounding area have transformed from industrial use toward mixed-income housing, particularly in recent years. The broader Brooklyn context is a densely walkable, transit-rich borough with a strong civic infrastructure, strong employment centers in healthcare and education, and extensive parks and libraries. Housing values and rental costs in the school's zip code are high, reflecting the neighborhood's proximity to Manhattan and the ongoing real-estate investment in the downtown Brooklyn area.

District 13, the school's parent district, has implemented lasting structural changes to its middle school admissions, reserving the majority of seats at all ten middle schools for students from low-income families and those in temporary housing, with no academic screens. This signals the district's equity-focused approach to access. For families considering this school as an early-grades pathway, that admissions context for the district's middle schools is relevant to the overall progression families navigate.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 71% · ▼ 71 pts below district

▼ 59 pts below state median · ▼ 71 pts below county median

Grade 46%

School 6% · District 64% · ▼ 58 pts below district

▼ 52 pts below state median · ▼ 61 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 53% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 72% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 68% · ▼ 39 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 63% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 47% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 557%

School 57% · district not reported

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #13, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.