Neighborhood Education
Higher education levels are associated with better health outcomes and greater economic mobility. The data below reflects education sector disparities in Brownsville compared to the borough of Brooklyn and the neighborhood of Park Slope. As you scroll through this page you will see the challenges Brownsville residents face and community interventions that are working to address them.
Welcome to the Education Page of Brownsville Partnership's Neighborhood Data Dashboard. We hope you find this resource useful for learning about how Brownsville students fare in the different educational systems that serve them. The data below is organized along two tiers: Up top you'll find graphics that describe the state of education for the whole neighborhood, compared to other NYC geographies. As you scroll down the page you'll find information and more graphics about promising programs that, if scaled, could have a positive impact on the whole community. We hope this leads to questions, suggestions and decisions on where best to invest our resources and partner together.
3rd Grade Reading Proficiency and Chronic Absenteeism
Third grade has been identified as important to reading literacy because it is the final year children are learning to read, after which students are “reading to learn.” If they are not proficient readers when they begin fourth grade, as much as half of the curriculum they will be taught will be incomprehensible.
Source: Pre-Kindergarten-Third Grade Literacy, NCSL, 2019. Missing too many days of school, or being chronically absent, can cause students to fall behind academically and increases the risk of dropping out. Brownsville’s elementary school absenteeism rate is higher than the rate for NYC overall. Chronic absenteeism is often caused by health issues, such as emergency room visits due to asthma, which in turn can be the result of environmental factors such as mold and pests in the home.
Source: Community Health Profiles: Brownsville, DOHMH NYC, 2018United for Brownsville
United for Brownsville is a family-led collaboration transforming the early childhood systems in Brownsville, Brooklyn, so that all young children are able to flourish.
Our work starts with families’ hopes for their children and their ideas for eradicating systemic inequities in early childhood services.
This approach disrupts harmful power dynamics and beliefs rooted in anti-Black racism that prevent Black and Latinx children from lifting off.
What is Early Intervention for?
Early Intervention (EI) provides free services to children aged 0-36 months with developmental delays. Black and Hispanic children in Brownsville have historically accessed EI at much lower rates than children citywide. Children with developmental delays who receive EI services as early as possible are better able to stay on track and less likely to need special education later on.
The data graphics below illustrate UB’s impact on ensuring Brownsville’s youngest residents have equitable access to this critical service- an impact that will help to narrow the disparities in education we see at the top of this page for the whole community. Click here to learn more about UB’s Early Intervention work.
To learn about promising efforts to improve education outcomes in Brownsville see United for Brownsville’s (UB) graphics below.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2012-2016We want your feedback!
Source: District End-of-Year Attendance and Chronic Absenteeism, NYC DOE, 2022Source: ELA Test Results 2013 to 2022, NYC DOE, 2022