Ps 328 Phyllis Wheatley, Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps 328 Phyllis Wheatley

PS 328 Phyllis Wheatley sits on Alabama Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn, serving children from pre-K through fifth grade. It is a small school for its grade band, part of New York City Geographic District 19. Nearly every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic. These are plain demographic facts about who attends, not a judgment on the school.

On the New York State Testing Program, results from the most recent school year show a mixed but generally strong picture in math and ELA, with a real soft spot in science that a parent will want to probe further. Third-grade math proficiency is solid, and fifth-grade math and ELA both come in quite strong, with a large majority of tested students reaching levels 3 or 4. Fourth grade is more uneven: math proficiency drops compared to third and fifth grade, and ELA fourth-grade results are the weakest of the three tested ELA cohorts, with roughly half of tested students reaching proficiency. Fifth-grade science is another matter: fewer than a third of tested students reached proficiency, which is noticeably weaker than the school's performance in other subjects and grades. A parent would be well-served asking the school directly about its science instruction and what supports are in place.

When placed against the schools with reported proficiency data among districts in Kings County, PS 328's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile of that comparison set. That is a meaningful position given the school's demographics, and it suggests that the children attending are reaching proficiency at rates that hold up well in a borough-wide context.

Trend data was not available in the provided information, so it is not possible to say whether performance has been improving, declining, or holding steady over time. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rates do not apply here because the school stops at fifth grade. Civil-rights data, IEP rates, and English-learner counts were not available in the data provided.

On the curriculum side, District 19 moved in the 2023-2024 school year to the Wit and Wisdom reading program as part of New York City's broader literacy mandate, publicly reported as a science-of-reading-aligned curriculum that replaced the prior school-by-school approach. For families who care about how reading is taught, that shift is worth understanding, and the school can explain how it has been implemented. The district also opened a new accelerated high school in East New York with a pathway to an associate degree, which is relevant context for families thinking about where a child's academic journey goes after elementary school, even if it is several years away.

Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood, where the school is located, is part of a borough undergoing considerable housing growth and investment. The local housing market sits above both state and national benchmarks for home values, and rents have been rising. The neighborhood itself is dense and transit-accessible in the way most of Brooklyn is, with walkable streets and bus connections, though it sits somewhat apart from the higher-profile commercial corridors of other Brooklyn neighborhoods. District 19 has also seen a shift in enrollment patterns, with a growing share of families choosing charter schools over traditional district schools, a trend that shapes the mix of options families in the area are weighing.

The school does not have a website listed in the data provided, and program offerings were not included, so it is not possible to say anything about after-school activities, enrichment, or extracurricular programs. Those would be worth asking about directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 59% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 53% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 50% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 52% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 47% · ▲ 5 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 54% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 33% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 545%

School 45% · district not reported

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

Grade 839%

School 39% · district not reported

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #19, 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.