Back to News
New Reports
Posted on Posted on: · by Michael Lesczinski
share

2026 Our World Neighborhood Charter School 2 Proposed Middle School Expansion Summary of Performance

Districts: Queens CSD 27

Key Information

Key Findings

Education Corporation Overview

The SUNY Trustees approved the original charter for Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools (“OWN Schools”) on January 23, 2001. On June 13, 2016, the SUNY Trustees approved OWN Schools to replicate its successful program with its second school, Our World Neighborhood Charter School 2 (“OWN 2”) and on October 18, 2018 approved its third school, Our World Neighborhood Charter School 3. OWN 2 opened in the fall of 2018 initially serving 156 students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. The school currently serves 480 students in Kindergarten through 5th grades in private space at 135-25 79th Street, Queens, New York 11414 in Community School District 27. The SUNY Trustees granted OWN 2 a full-term, five-year renewal on March 15, 2023. (See the Institute’s renewal report available at: OWN 2 Renewal Report.)

Proposed Elementary School Program

The proposed middle school program replicates the middle school program at OWN Schools flagship school which has a track record of high academic achievement. OWN 1 is an authorized International Baccalaureate World School offering both the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes. OWN 2 is currently under application to become a Primary Years Programme and, if approved, OWN Schools would apply for OWN 2’s middle school to become a Middle Years Programme.

OWN Schools has been thoughtful as to building its elementary program to prepare students for a middle school program structuring its 5th grade to serve as a transition between elementary to middle school expectations.

Building on its mission to educate independent thinkers and lifelong learners, the program focuses on inquiry, active, and experiential learning as well as social justice. The program uses literacybased, integrated, and standards driven curriculum encouraging community and honoring diversity.

The middle school program will be rooted in the program’s key design elements of:

  • A commitment to diversity developing globally-minded students from a purposeful diverse school community.
  • Fostering of a positive community rooted in the schools’ Pillars of a Positive community curriculum which reinforces civic and social responsibility toward one’s own community but also toward those from diverse backgrounds creating a common sense of community.
  • An emphasis on literacy not just in English but an academic program where students become math, science, world, and information literate teaching students how to engage responsibly with information to determine credibility and authority.
  • An interdisciplinary approach to learning where teachers explore curriculum across subjects deepening students’ learning experience and understanding.
  • OWN Schools’ uses a gradual release of responsibility model wherein students engage in workshop models allowing students to shift from a slow and purposeful cognitive load to gradually increasing responsibility to independent learners through discussion and collaboration with their peers
  • The workshop model also addresses accelerated learning and intervention programming which allows for ease of scaffolding material to ensure each students’ needs are met.
  • A program inclusive of a liberal arts education where the state learning standards are a priority but coupled other disciplines as aligned with IB Middle Years Programme. Subject areas include language acquisition, language and literature, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical education, health education, and design.
  • An investment in human capital supporting leadership, instructional, and administrative staff to acquire and refine skills and build capacity. Professional development is integrated throughout the workday and through workshops and each year teachers invest in a weeklong professional development period before the start of the school year. Professional development is rooted in reflective practice teaching adults to reflect, refine, and execute on continuous improvement.
  • A longer school day and year where the calendar provides for at least 185 school days and a longer school day.

Community Need and Support

OWN 2 presented a clear analysis and evidence of student demand among its current student population. In addition, OWN Schools conducted an analysis of the local area’s need for a middle school where many of its own students do not have high quality options after elementary school. Other high performing charter schools are typically not enrolling new students at great levels at middle school due to their own matriculating elementary students leaving many OWN 2 students to attend schools demonstrating poor academic results in comparison to OWN’s flagship middle school program. OWN Schools presented a clear need for a quality program in the area and its own successful track record demonstrates it will meet the needs identified. OWN Schools has also clearly demonstrated capacity to adjust to changing demand while ensuring the rigor of the academic program with any budget constraints.

Facility Needs

OWN 2 has identified a space within the same commercial development as the elementary location allowing convenience for families with students in different grades and will facilitate easier collaboration and communication across administrative, instructional, and operational staff. OWN Schools is working with its previous developer at retrofitting the 50,000 square foot building with an outdoor rooftop space. Plans anticipate the facility being ready to occupy for the 2027-28 school year. If the facility is delayed OWN Schools provided contingency plans where students could be accommodated in the current elementary location for the initial year of the expansion.

Academic Analysis

From 2021-22 to 2024-25, OWN 2 demonstrated consistent growth in ELA and mathematics. Over that period, the school increased the proportion of tested students enrolled in at least their second year scoring at or above proficient by 37 percentage points in ELA and 47 percentage points in mathematics. In 2024-25, the most recent year with available state exam results, OWN 2 outperformed the local district by eight percentage points in ELA and 13 percentage points in mathematics. Also that year, OWN 2 posted comparative effect sizes that met or exceeded the target of 0.3. This level of performance indicates that in comparison to demographically similar schools across New York State, OWN 2 performed higher than expected to a meaningful degree. Notably, OWN 2 exceeded the targets for all comparative and growth measures included under its mathematics goal in 2024-25. In alignment with the school’s substantial increase in proficiency, the school posted a mean growth percentile in mathematics five points above the target of 50.

Fiscal and Legal Analysis

The Institute reviewed the proposed middle school program elements (Including enrollment projections and staffing), and budgets and found them satisfactory. The Institute also reviewed the most recent audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and finds the fiscal health of the education corporation to be adequate. The Institute acknowledges the education corporation currently stands as ‘Poor’ on the fiscal metrics used for evaluation, however, the team also recognizes qualitative factors that led to the determination of the organization’s fiscal health. During fiscal year 2022-23 the education corporation saw a drop in its financial metrics due to its adoption of recent accounting standards. Within the 2023-24 and 2024-25 notes to the financial statements provided by the education corporation’s auditor, additional non-cash expenses associated with its four leased sites were incurred, and had they not been incurred, Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools would have had a positive change in net assets. The Institute notes the decrease in the education corporation’s fiscal metrics were not a result of fiscal mismanagement, but rather the accounting standards adoption. Should the projections provided within the proposal documentation meet the education corporations’ expectations, the middle school expansion should result in a positive financial position.

The Institute also reviewed the proposed revision from the legal perspective, and finds it suitable under the Act and applicable law. Therefore, the Institute recommends the Charter Schools Committee approve the requested revision.