Ps 189 Bilingual Center (the), Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps 189 Bilingual Center (the)

PS 189 Bilingual Center is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in central Brooklyn, located in the East New York neighborhood. It serves a predominantly low-income community; nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school's enrollment of around nine hundred students breaks fairly evenly across grades, with slightly larger middle school cohorts, and the student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with representation across both groups.

The school's name reflects its bilingual mission, though the available data does not detail the specific languages offered or the structure of bilingual programming. The school's academic results show a mixed profile. In English language arts, proficiency rates range from about forty-four percent in grade four to nearly sixty percent in grade seven, with grade three and grade eight both near or above fifty-four percent. Math proficiency is similarly uneven: grades three and four hover around sixty-four percent, grade seven reaches about fifty-nine percent, and grade eight about fifty-three percent, but grade five dips substantially to around twenty-nine percent. Grade six math proficiency sits at about forty-four percent. Science results, available only for grades five and eight, show low proficiency in grade five at about twenty-eight percent and higher in grade eight at about forty-five percent. These patterns suggest that students show stronger foundational skills in the early elementary years and in the middle school years, while grade five and early grades four-five represent a dip in attainment. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand whether these fluctuations reflect changes in instruction, assessment difficulty, or cohort characteristics.

When compared against the other school-level entities in Kings County, PS 189's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of its peers. The school's reading engagement, as measured by participation rates in state testing, is generally strong, particularly in the middle grades where participation often exceeds ninety percent, though slightly lower in grades three and four.

District 17, which serves central Brooklyn, is implementing a citywide reading curriculum mandate as of September 2024 that requires all elementary schools to teach one of three city-approved programs focused on phonics and the science of reading. This represents a lasting shift in how literacy is taught across the district. The district is also preparing for the state's class-size reduction law, which will cap elementary grades at twenty students per class by 2027-28. Additionally, the district has experienced sustained enrollment decline over several years as the residential population has fallen, resulting in thousands of excess seats and prompting school relocations and co-locations. While these district-level changes are in motion, PS 189 itself remains open and operating as a regular public school.

Brooklyn itself is a dense, walkable urban borough with active street life and strong transit connectivity. Housing values in the school's zip code have risen slightly year-over-year, and rental prices remain relatively stable. The neighborhood is experiencing strong residential development growth, though district-wide enrollment is falling. The community benefits from extensive public libraries, major parks including Prospect Park, and significant employment hubs in healthcare and education.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

3 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Ela	30	90.0%
Math	23	100.0%
Science	13	100.0%

Math

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 64% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 58% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 50% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 48% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 51% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 45% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 61% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 58% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 60% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 54% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 52% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 35% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 38% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 587%

School 87% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 852%

School 52% · district not reported

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #17, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income60%19 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income67%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income60%1 pp gap