Brooklyn Avenue School, Valley Stream NY

Original Research by School Decision on Brooklyn Avenue School

Brooklyn Avenue School is a kindergarten through sixth-grade elementary school serving about three hundred fifty students in Valley Stream, a residential village on Nassau County's South Shore. The school sits in a community that blends suburban single-family neighborhoods with retail anchors like Green Acres Mall and maintains an extensive parks system and LIRR transit access to Manhattan.

The school's recent test data shows uneven performance across subjects and grades. In math, proficiency ranges from a low point in the middle grades to stronger results in third grade and more modest results in sixth grade. English language arts performance is more volatile: third-grade students show better proficiency than the school's pattern in other grades, while fourth and fifth grades report notably lower proficiency, though sixth grade recovers. Science proficiency in fifth grade (the only grade tested) fell below half of students. Data for social studies is unavailable beyond an older result. Participation rates dip in the upper elementary grades, particularly in fifth-grade science and ELA, which a parent may want to look into further with the school.

The school's student body reflects the broader diversity of Valley Stream. More than half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced price lunch, indicating economic need across the population. The demographic makeup is roughly balanced between Hispanic, Black, Asian, and white students, with Hispanic students representing the largest share. Specific data on special education enrollment and English learner enrollment were not available.

Among schools tested in Nassau County districts, Brooklyn Avenue's overall proficiency index places it below the county midpoint, meaning there is stronger performance elsewhere in the county to compare against.

Valley Stream 24 Union Free School District, which operates the school alongside two others, recently launched "Vision 2030," a districtwide shift toward project-based and collaborative learning, technology and AI skills, and social-emotional focus across all three schools. This pedagogy change is underway in pilot "redesign classrooms" and represents a significant evolution in how instruction is delivered. The district also added a new psychologist and social worker for mental health services and gave each building its own full-time substitute teacher beginning in 2025-2026, replacing a rotating model that had served all buildings.

Valley Stream itself is experiencing modest but deliberate growth concentrated near the LIRR station and downtown Rockaway Avenue. The village adopted transit-oriented zoning and has been developing mixed-income housing: apartments and senior buildings within walking distance of transit rather than sprawl. In 2025-2026 the village won a state Downtown Revitalization Initiative award for its "International Downtown" vision. The housing market is appreciating gradually; median home values in the area remain relatively high for suburban Long Island, and rental costs reflect suburban patterns. The LIRR station offers direct access to Manhattan and connects to local bus service, shaping commute and housing choices for many families.

The school community operates in a context of incremental change: pedagogy shifting toward collaboration and student voice, mental health staffing expanding, and the village pursuing walkable, transit-oriented development in place of auto-dependent sprawl. A parent should weigh whether the school's current performance data and the district's Vision 2030 transformation align with their child's learning style and their assessment of where the school is heading.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 79% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 76% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 59% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 71% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 70% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 50% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 55% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 63% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 48% · ▼ 7 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 595%

School 95% · District 97% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

This schoolVALLEY STREAM 24 UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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-income45%Higher-income71%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income40%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income42%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income67%Higher-income71%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income70%Higher-income75%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income72%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income47%Higher-income62%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income71%Higher-income61%10 pp gap