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Enrollment
550
Elementary
DISTRICT 673 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #20·NCES 360015105908
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)
330 59TH ST, BROOKLYN, NY 11220 · (718) 439-5962 · Kings County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL550 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 62% of New York public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded New York public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
7.8:1
71 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.3:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
517 students
DISTRICT 82% · STATE 58%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 73 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 88 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 68 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 107 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 102 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 109 | 20% |
| Ungraded | 3 | 1% |
This year's kindergarten class (73) is 33% smaller than its 5th grade class (109).
Student demographics
39%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 67% · STATE 72% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
NYS Assessments 2024-25 . % Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4)English Language Arts
58.0%
NY avg 58.3% . +15.0pp since 2023
Math
58.0%
NY avg 57.4% . +4.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the NYS Assessments, New York's statewide test, about 58 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 58 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New York schools, those numbers are about 58 and 57. Reading and writing scores are up about 15 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
NYS Assessments results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 58.0% | 58.0% |
| 2023-24 | 43.0% | 54.0% |
% Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4), all students and all tested grades.
Source: NYS Assessments. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
50.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
40.4%
based on NY schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+9.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 50% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 40% typical for New York schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New York's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)'s state test result (50.1% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) this school | 550 | 94.0% | 50.1% |
| PS 97 FOREST PARK WOODHAVEN | 575 | 88.2% | 47.3% |
| PS 8 ISAAC VARIAN BRONX | 600 | 92.3% | 38.2% |
| PS 148 EAST ELMHURST | 653 | 86.7% | 39.2% |
| PS 82 HAMMOND JAMAICA | 674 | 89.0% | 33.9% |
| PS 29 COLLEGE POINT | 682 | 90.5% | 44.9% |
Matched among New York elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New York | In Kings County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 50.1% | #1,163 of 2,335 | #176 of 290 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.0% | #1,136 of 2,342 ▼ 2 | #174 of 290 ▼ 17 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 58.0% | #1,023 of 2,343 ▲ 121 | #180 of 290 ▼ 12 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 550 | #632 of 2,585 | #106 of 306 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 7.8:1 | #50 of 2,338 | #11 of 249 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.2% | #1,633 of 2,388 | #207 of 263 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.0% | #252 of 2,534 | #56 of 300 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -49.1% | #42 of 1,757 | #16 of 225 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
550
-307 (-36%) vs 2020
-38% since 2010-11, when it was 891
Student : Teacher
7.8:1
was 11.0:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 550 | 70.8 | 7.8:1 | 94% (517) |
| 2023-24 | 586 | 65.3 | 9.0:1 | 96% (562) |
| 2022-23 | 630 | 76.3 | 8.3:1 | 94% (594) |
| 2020-21 | 857 | 78 | 11.0:1 | 95% (813) |
| 2017-18 | 1,081 | 94.1 | 11.5:1 | 96% (1,040) |
| 2015-16 | 1,129 | 99 | 11.4:1 | 95% (1,072) |
| 2010-11 | 891 | 82 | 10.9:1 | 97% (860) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE).
About PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)
Located in BROOKLYN, New York, PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) is a mid-sized elementary school. Enrollment totals 550 students across kindergarten through 5. That puts enrollment 24% larger than the 443-student average for elementary schools in New York.
NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #20 has a total of 48 schools and 44,136 students, PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) among them.
The student body at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) is 76% Hispanic. The rest of enrollment is 14% Asian and 8% White. Among all residents of Kings County, the Hispanic share is about 19%. A diversity index of 39% means there is a 39% chance two randomly chosen students at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) are from different groups.
For every teacher at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE), there are about 7.8 students; the school has 70.8 full-time-equivalent teachers. The average for elementary schools in New York, 12.8:1, is higher. There are 517 students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 94% of enrollment. Among public schools in Kings County, the average eligibility rate is 79%.
Among New York public elementary schools, PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) outscored 62%, which works out to a B on the allk12 Grade.
Compared with New York schools that have similar shares of low-income students, PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)'s results are 9.7 points above predicted: 50.1% against 40.4%.
For the population of Kings County, the median household earns about $80,263 a year, about 42% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 15%. PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) shares Kings County with 582 other public schools.
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)'s nearest public school is PS 506 SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND TECHNOLOGY (THE) (less than a tenth of a mile). There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. On state test proficiency, PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) ranks 5th in a group of 8 nearby schools.
Its location is classified as City: Large by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Enrollment figures show a decline of 307 students from 2020-21 to 2024-25. By 2024-25, the school had 7.8 students per teacher, compared with 11.0 in 2020-21.
The allk12 page for PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) lets the school community talk about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. You can also rate the school on this page.
Kings County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,631,580
Census ACS
Median income
$80,263
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
42%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
15%
Below federal line
Schools in county
583
291,697 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #20
- FORT HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 4,044 students
- FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,403 students
- NEW UTRECHT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,236 students
- JHS 259 WILLIAM MCKINLEYMiddle · 1,780 students
- MADELEINE BRENNAN SCHOOL (THE)Middle · 1,518 students
- JHS 227 EDWARD B SHALLOWMiddle · 1,327 students
Other schools in BROOKLYN
- BROOKLYN TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 5,848 students
- FORT HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 4,044 students
- JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,983 students
- MIDWOOD HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,657 students
- EDWARD R MURROW HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,503 students
- FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,403 students
Nearby schools
- PS 506 SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND TECHNOLOGY (THE)0.0 mi · 334
- MS 936 ARTS OFF 3RD0.1 mi · 441
- SUNSET SCHOOL OF CULTURAL LEARNING0.1 mi · 266
- SCHOOL OF MATH SCIENCE AND HEALTHY LIVING0.2 mi · 169
- LEEP DUAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL0.4 mi · 435
- HIGH SCHOOL OF TELECOMMUNICATION ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY0.4 mi · 1,222
Frequently asked questions
About PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)What is the total enrollment at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)?
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) enrolls approximately 550 students in grades KG-05.
Is PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) an elementary, middle, or high school?
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)?
Approximately 7.8:1 students per teacher at PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE).
How diverse is PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE)?
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) reports a student body of 8% White, 76% Hispanic, 14% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Is PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) public or private?
PS 503 SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY (THE) is a public K-12 school, overseen by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #20.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.