P.S. / I.S. 308 Clara Cardwell

Pricey hipster cafes are within walking distance of PS 308, yet many children in this neighborhood still live in poverty. The school has declining enrollment, as rising prices force some families out of the neighborhood and other families choose charter schools.

Sharon Odwin, who became principal in 2016, gets high marks from parents, according to comments posted on the InsideSchools website. She is a reading specialist with long teaching experience and was an assistant principal at MS 8, a middle school in Queens.

PS 308 has inviting pre-kindergarten classrooms with their own bathrooms and a door that leads directly to a safe, enclosed outdoor play area.

PS 308 serves a needy population: 30 percent receive special education services; more than half are at least two years below grade level in reading and math; 17 percent live in temporary housing and travel a great distance to school each morning, according to the schools annual plan. Absenteeism is high, and more than half of children miss more than a month of school, according to Department of Education statistics.

PS 308 has had its ups and downs over the years. It was once home to a gifted program that attracted some of the best students in Bedford Stuyvesant and prepared them for Brooklyn Tech High School and other selective high schools. When the gifted program was eliminated in 2008, the school suffered through a series of administrative changes: Kids roamed the halls, boys and girls hung out in coatrooms with the lights off, and teachers in locked classrooms taught only kids willing to learn, according to George Patterson, who became principal in 2012, and who was credited with restoring order.

PS 308 shares a building with T eaching Firms of America Professional Preparatory Charter School.

ADMISSIONS: Neighborhood school. (Lydie Raschka, April 2014; updated July 2017 with new principal and stats)