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City officials want to close a shrinking Brooklyn school, replacing it with a new one designed to help struggling readers, modeled on an innovative program that launched last year in the Bronx.
The Education Department plans to shutter M.S. 394 in Crown Heights at the end of this school year, citing dwindling enrollment for the pre-K-8 school and low academic performance. City officials hope the building will become the home of the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy, which would be the second city-operated public school exclusively devoted to students with dyslexia and other reading challenges.
M.S. 394 has shrunk by 36% over the last five years and now serves about 200 children, according to the closure proposal. Despite efforts to improve instruction and school culture, just 21% of students were considered proficient in reading last year and 25% in math. Citywide, about 53% of students were proficient in math and 49% were in reading .