Achievement First Apollo Charter School, Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Achievement First Apollo Charter School

Achievement First Apollo is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in East New York, Brooklyn. The school operates as part of the Achievement First network, which provides curriculum, assessment, and an instructional model shared across its schools. Apollo's charter was recently renewed through the 2029-30 school year by the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, securing multi-year operational stability for families enrolling now.

The school's enrollment is small to mid-sized for its grade band, with a student body that is predominantly Black and Hispanic. The racial composition reflects the neighborhood's demographics. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data was not available, so understanding the school's economic context requires looking at housing and neighborhood conditions. The surrounding area has median home values well above the state benchmark, with rental costs also rising notably year over year, characteristics of Brooklyn's broader development boom.

Math proficiency shows a pattern across grades. Third and fourth grade students demonstrate solid performance, but proficiency declines noticeably in grades five and six, dips further in grade seven, then recovers somewhat by eighth grade. English language arts follows a similar arc: third grade starts above the median for reading, fourth and sixth grades are weaker, while seventh and eighth grades stabilize. Science proficiency in fifth grade is the lowest subject area shown, though eighth grade science improves. This pattern across grades and subjects suggests Apollo may face challenges in the upper elementary and middle grades, particularly in mathematics. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how the school is addressing proficiency gaps in these grades and what support systems exist for students who fall below the proficiency bar.

Relative to other charter and traditional public schools in Kings County, Apollo's overall proficiency sits in the top quartile, meaning it outperforms the median district in the county on state tests. This places the school in a stronger position academically than many of its county peers, even given the grade-level variation noted above.

The school sits in Brooklyn, a borough marked by dense, walkable neighborhoods with strong transit access and extensive civic anchors including Prospect Park and a robust branch library system. Downtown Brooklyn and surrounding commercial corridors mean daily life is embedded in mixed-use neighborhoods rather than isolated from community. The borough is in a strong development cycle, with substantial new residential construction reshaping parts of the community. Healthcare, higher education, tech, and city services are major employment sectors. The Achievement First network, which provides Apollo's educational framework, underwent a strategic reset in spring 2024, establishing new network-wide priorities and skills students should demonstrate at graduation, changes that will shape the learning environment over coming years.

No data was available on chronic absenteeism, graduation rates (not applicable to an elementary and middle school), disciplinary incidents, special education enrollment or English learner enrollment, staffing, or specific course offerings beyond the state-tested core subjects. These would be valuable areas to discuss directly with the school. The school's website address was not provided in the available information.

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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	30	97.0%

Math

Grade 378%

School 78% · district not reported

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

Grade 485%

School 85% · district not reported

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · district not reported

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

Grade 647%

School 47% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · district not reported

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

Grade 863%

School 63% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · district not reported

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

Grade 453%

School 53% · district not reported

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

Grade 562%

School 62% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 641%

School 41% · district not reported

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

Grade 755%

School 55% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 861%

School 61% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · district not reported

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

This schoolDistrict average, 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-income56%Higher-income62%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income57%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income86%27 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income73%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income55%Higher-income57%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income60%Higher-income67%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income77%Higher-income85%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income85%Higher-income86%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income51%Higher-income71%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income82%41 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income51%Higher-income63%12 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income59%Higher-income80%21 pp gap