The top reported proficiency rate is 85% in Math. The lowest is 77% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on East Brooklyn Ascend Charter School (ebacs)
East Brooklyn Ascend Charter School sits on Shepherd Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn, serving kindergarten through fourth grade. It is part of the Ascend Public Charter Schools network and draws students from the East New York, Flatlands, and Howard Beach neighborhoods. One thing families notice quickly: this is a genuinely small school. There is one class per grade, which means your child will likely move through all four years with largely the same cohort. That intimacy shapes the peer environment in ways that differ considerably from a larger neighborhood elementary.
The school is relatively new and has grown into its full grade span recently. One publicly reported distinctive feature is that EBACS is one of only a handful of Ascend schools to offer capoeira as a special alongside the core curriculum, which sets its program apart from most elementary options in the borough.
On state testing, results reported through the New York State Testing Program for third and fourth grade are strong. Math proficiency in both tested grades sits well above what is typical statewide, and ELA proficiency is solid, with fourth grade tracking close to math and third grade somewhat lower but still well above average for the borough context. Placed against other entities in Kings County, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile, which is a real strength worth naming plainly. Because the school serves only kindergarten through fourth grade, there is no graduation rate and no high school pathway data; those measures simply do not apply here.
The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, and a very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed; families who want to understand the school's specific supports for those populations would be well-served by asking directly.
In the fall of the 2023-24 school year, Ascend rolled out new math and literacy curricula across its network, including EBACS, funded by a major philanthropic grant. The literacy piece is built around a Science of Reading approach emphasizing phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. For parents weighing a school partly on how reading is taught, this is a concrete and recent shift worth exploring further with the school.
Chronic absenteeism data was not available in the records reviewed, so that dimension of school environment cannot be assessed here.
The neighborhood surrounding the school sits within Brooklyn's broader housing market, which is one of the more expensive in the state and well above national benchmarks. Publicly reported data points to Brooklyn leading New York City in new housing completions in recent years, with development concentrated in Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg rather than East New York specifically, though the borough-wide supply trend is relevant to any family weighing a move to be near the school. Rents in the zip code area have risen meaningfully year over year, so affordability is a real variable for families considering this location.
Brooklyn's transit infrastructure means the school is accessible without a car, consistent with the borough's highly walkable character overall, though street-level conditions vary neighborhood to neighborhood and East New York sits further from the dense transit corridors of central Brooklyn.
For a family whose child thrives in a tight-knit, consistent classroom community and who values explicit phonics-based literacy instruction, the combination of small size and strong tested outcomes makes EBACS worth a close look. The absence of IEP and English learner rate data is a gap a prospective family with those needs should fill before enrolling.
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