Ps 84 Jose De Diego, Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps 84 Jose De Diego

PS 84 Jose de Diego sits on Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, serving children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade within NYC Geographic District 14. It is a mid-sized neighborhood public school by New York City standards, drawing a student body that is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of white students as well as smaller Black, Asian, and multiracial populations. A meaningful share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic mix of the surrounding neighborhood. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed.

The school's academic picture on the New York State Testing Program is genuinely mixed, and the variation across grades is wide enough that parents should look at the specific grade their child would enter. In ELA, results in the elementary grades are solid, and fifth grade stands out as a clear strength, with the large majority of tested students reaching proficiency. ELA results hold reasonably well through eighth grade. Math tells a more uneven story. Fourth grade math is a high point, with well above half of students proficient. Third and fifth grade math come in around the midpoint, and seventh grade is modestly below that. Sixth grade math proficiency drops sharply, to a notably low share, which a parent of an incoming middle schooler would want to ask the school about directly. Eighth grade math data was not reported, likely because no students sat for that particular assessment in the tested cycle. Science results at fifth and eighth grade land in the mid-range. Social studies data in the file comes only from a much older school year and is not useful for current comparison purposes.

Placed against other schools in the data set drawn from Kings County districts, PS 84's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of that comparison group. That is a factual characterization of where it stands relative to peers in the county, not a verdict on the school.

Williamsburg itself has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The neighborhood around Berry Street is dense, highly walkable, and transit-connected, with active commercial streets and a mix of longtime Latino residents and a large wave of newer arrivals. Publicly reported sources note that Williamsburg has been in an ongoing residential construction boom, with new low-rise and ground-up projects continuing to reshape blocks near the Bedford Avenue corridor. That growth has not translated into school enrollment gains. District 14 has seen steep enrollment declines at both the elementary and middle school levels since before the pandemic, steeper than Brooklyn as a whole according to publicly reported district planning data. NYC has accelerated school mergers and consolidations citywide, with a large share concentrated in Brooklyn, and District 14 schools have faced that pressure. A family choosing PS 84 should be aware that the district context carries real uncertainty around school stability and possible consolidations in the years ahead.

Two citywide policy changes are also worth knowing. NYC moved to lottery-based middle school admissions starting with the 2021-22 cycle, removing the grades and test-score screens that had shaped middle school placement; selective screens returned afterward at a far smaller number of schools than before. Families in District 14 navigate middle school matching in that changed environment, and how PS 84's own sixth-through-eighth-grade program fits into a family's longer-term plan is worth exploring. Separately, a 2022 state law requires NYC schools to phase in smaller class-size caps through the late 2020s, a change that, if fully implemented, would affect classroom conditions at PS 84.

Housing near Berry Street in Williamsburg is among the most expensive in Brooklyn, with home values and rents far above both the state and national medians and with year-over-year appreciation continuing at a meaningful pace. That context shapes who can realistically choose this school through residence.

Graduation rate does not apply to PS 84, as the school serves only through eighth grade. No program offerings data was available, and no chronic absenteeism data was provided for this school.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

1 course 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
Math	51	29.0%

Math

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 67% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 63% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 61% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 48% · ▼ 30 pts below district

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

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 61% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 33% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 62% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 466%

School 66% · District 63% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 72% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 60% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 61% · ▼ 13 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

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

Science

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 48% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 40% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 563%

School 63% · district not reported

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #14, 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 3Lower-income52%Higher-income88%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income77%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income66%Higher-income79%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income70%33 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income90%56 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income100%55 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income30%Higher-income87%57 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income51%Higher-income91%39 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income64%18 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income13%Higher-income40%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income90%55 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income18%Higher-income35%17 pp gap