Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School, Brooklyn NY

Original Research by School Decision on Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School

Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School is a middle school serving grades 6 through 8 in Brooklyn with a small enrollment housed in a charter setting. The school has secured charter renewal through mid-2031, a foundational stability for families considering enrollment.

The defining feature of the school is its integration of hands-on farm-to-school and sustainability programming across the entire student body. Through participation in the New York State Farm to School Institute, all students grow, prepare, and eat produce from three on-campus gardens and visit urban farms as part of their regular learning. This anchors the school's identity and curriculum in ways beyond typical middle school offerings.

On academic performance, the school shows solid proficiency in English language arts and mathematics across its three grades. In sixth-grade English, proficiency sits above the midpoint among districts in Kings County, while math in the same grade is likewise above the midpoint. Performance holds relatively steady through seventh and eighth grades, with English language arts remaining strong and mathematics proficiency ranging around the midpoint or slightly below. Science assessment data for eighth grade was not available. Participation rates in testing hover in the mid-to-high range, suggesting consistent attendance during assessment windows. These results point to students meeting grade-level standards in the core subjects at rates that exceed the median among the county's districts overall, though without trends or demographic breakdowns, a fuller picture of which student groups are advancing faster or slower is not available.

The school has also built accelerated academics in science and mathematics. All eighth graders take Biology at the Regents level and sit for the Regents Exam, and students follow a dual Math 8 and Algebra I track to prepare for the Algebra I Regents. This means students earn high school credit while still in middle school, a feature families weighing academic rigor and high school admissions outcomes may want to explore further. The school itself describes a rigorous curriculum, though longer-term data on how this acceleration translates to high school performance is not available here.

Enrollment is small, with roughly equal distribution across the three grades. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, below the median for the county. The student body is majority white with substantial representation of Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and Black students. Special populations data, such as the count of students with IEPs or English learners, was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the support infrastructure for these groups.

The school sits in Brooklyn at the intersection of walkable neighborhoods, dense transit, and active commercial corridors. The 11215 zip code encompasses parts of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Sunset Park, neighborhoods known for tree-lined residential blocks alongside shops and restaurants. These are strong housing markets, with median home values in the broader zip substantially above state and national benchmarks. Rents too are high and rising. The neighborhood character is urban and pedestrian-oriented, with extensive subway access and community institutions including Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Public Library system nearby.

Brooklyn more broadly is in active growth and development, with new housing leading citywide production. This affects the neighborhood texture, availability, and affordability families face when considering a school choice in the area.

For a family drawn to the farm-to-school model and accelerated middle school academics in a charter setting, with a neighborhood that is walkable, transit-rich, and gentrifying, Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School fits a specific profile. Parents should connect directly with the school to understand special population supports, longer-term outcomes data, and the day-to-day experience of the accelerated program before deciding.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

2 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
Math	97	69.0%
Science	82	98.0%

Math

Grade 675%

School 75% · district not reported

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

Grade 767%

School 67% · district not reported

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

Grade 869%

School 69% · district not reported

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 678%

School 78% · district not reported

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

Grade 777%

School 77% · district not reported

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below 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 6Lower-income48%Higher-income93%44 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income83%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income39%Higher-income83%44 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income87%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income78%40 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income86%59 pp gap