When neighborhoods gentrify, what happens to the zoned school?
The question
Which New York City schools are gentrifying fastest, and what happens when a school's demographic mix flips?
Twelve New York City schools saw their share of white enrollment rise 13 percentage points or more between 2020-21 and 2024-25. The biggest mover: Success Academy Fort Greene in Brooklyn went from 5% white to 53% white in four years. Eight of the 12 are in Brooklyn; most sit in gentrifying neighborhoods (Fort Greene, Red Hook, Boerum Hill, Williamsburg). At schools that undergo this kind of shift, parent-teacher-association fundraising typically rises with the demographic mix; aggregate outcomes typically rise too (the new students arrive with higher average prior preparation); and within-school gaps between student groups typically appear or widen.
Data analysis
Investigation run 2026-05-31.
TL;DR
Twelve New York City schools saw their share of white enrollment rise 13 percentage points or more between 2020-21 and 2024-25. The biggest mover: Success Academy Fort Greene in Brooklyn went from 5% white to 53% white — a 47-percentage-point shift in four years. Eight of the 12 are in Brooklyn; most sit in gentrifying neighborhoods (Fort Greene, Red Hook, Boerum Hill, Williamsburg). The pattern reflects neighborhood gentrification working its way into enrollment data.
Top 12 schools by change in white enrollment share (2020-21 to 2024-25)
| School | Borough | 2020-21 white % | 2024-25 white % | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success Academy Fort Greene (Brooklyn 5) | Brooklyn | 5.4 | 53 | +47.7 |
| Red Hook Neighborhood School | Brooklyn | 4.2 | 44.4 | +40.2 |
| P.S. 270 Johann DeKalb | Brooklyn | 2.1 | 27.9 | +25.9 |
| Life Academy HS for Film and Music | Brooklyn | 9.1 | 34.9 | +25.8 |
| Richard R. Green HS of Teaching | Manhattan | 3.1 | 25.6 | +22.4 |
| Essex Street Academy | Manhattan | 15.9 | 33 | +17.0 |
| HS of Sports Management | Brooklyn | 15.5 | 32.2 | +16.7 |
| Fort Greene Preparatory Academy | Brooklyn | 6.3 | 20.5 | +14.2 |
| P.S. K225 — The Eileen E. Zaglin | Brooklyn | 40.4 | 54.3 | +13.9 |
| William E. Grady CTE HS | Brooklyn | 14.7 | 28.1 | +13.4 |
| I.S. 303 Herbert S. Eisenberg | Brooklyn | 27.4 | 40.6 | +13.2 |
| P.S. 253 | Brooklyn | 25.3 | 38.4 | +13.1 |
Success Academy Fort Greene is the fastest single shift
Success Academy is a charter network that has historically served majority-Black student populations. Its Fort Greene school went from 5% white to 53% white in four years — a tenfold increase. Two plausible explanations: gentrifying Fort Greene families are choosing this Success Academy as their preferred local option, or the school's recruitment area has actively expanded. Either way, it's the fastest demographic shift in our data.
What happens at the receiving schools
When a school's white enrollment share rises 13 to 25 percentage points over four years, two patterns commonly follow. First, parent-teacher-association fundraising rises — wealthier families donate more, on average. Second, aggregate scores tend to rise (the newly arriving students typically come in with higher average prior preparation), but the within-school gaps between student groups also tend to appear or widen. Both effects have been documented at other schools that have undergone similar shifts. The 12 schools above are worth tracking on both measures over the next three years.
What about the schools the new students aren't attending?
Every white family in Fort Greene choosing Success Academy is a family not attending the local zoned schools. The schools that aren't on this list — the ones losing white enrollment or staying stable — are the other half of the story. P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights, the celebrated gentrification school of the 2010s, likely shows the inverse trajectory.
What's next
Profile Success Academy Fort Greene and Red Hook Neighborhood School, the two biggest movers. Both are in Brooklyn. Compare with the schools they're pulling families away from.
Methodology & replication recipe — the data sources, queries, and steps behind this analysis.