At a Glance
A Howard Gardner-grounded gifted program in eastern Queens where elementary students travel abroad to Senegal, Japan, and Brazil.
Best suited for
Eastern Queens and Long Island families, especially Black families, who want a small gifted program with a strong cultural identity, real academic push, and global travel exposure for their child.
What stands out
- The international travel program — group trips and a senior trip to Portugal, Senegal, Ghana, France, South Africa, Japan, Cuba, Brazil, and Morocco — is genuinely unusual for any school, let alone an elementary program.
- Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences framework appears to be woven into the curriculum rather than borrowed for marketing.
- An unusually broad after-school menu that runs from steel pan drums and step to Lego Robotics, photography, and architecture.
- The on-site Black History Museum is a concrete expression of the school's cultural priorities, not just a thematic unit.
- PK-8 continuity means families don't have to navigate a middle school transition.
Things to consider
- No subway within a 20-minute walk makes this realistically a car-or-bus school — a real filter for many NYC families, especially those in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or western Queens.
- Parent reviews are genuinely mixed: families praise academic rigor and a family feel, but concerns about rigidity and how the school handles students with special needs come up alongside the praise.
- The demographic profile is heavily Black (96.5%) and the diversity index is low — families seeking a more multiracial environment should weigh this honestly.
- At 227 students the peer pool is small, which means closer friendships but also fewer social options.
- Enrolling in PK means a 13-year institutional commitment unless the family is comfortable with a middle school change later.
Identity
A small, nonsectarian, coed PK-8 program built on Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory. The school's mission centers on identifying and developing each child's specific strengths — intellectual, artistic, emotional, and social — rather than tracking by test scores alone. The approach is rooted in progressive education philosophy but purpose-built for gifted learners.
Community
Cambria Center's student body is 96.5% Black, with very small representation from other groups and a low diversity index that places it on the homogeneous end of the NYC private school spectrum. This is a community that reflects its eastern Queens location and the families who have chosen a culturally familiar environment as much as a gifted curriculum. At 227 students, most families and teachers know each other well.
Neighborhood
Cambria Heights is a quiet, residential neighborhood in eastern Queens where the median household income sits around $115,000 and the poverty rate is low. Single-family homes and lawns dominate the blocks around the school — a suburban-feeling pocket of the borough. It is the kind of neighborhood that trades subway convenience for space.
The school is beyond walking distance of any subway station, so realistically this is a car- or bus-commute school, which puts it outside the reach of most Manhattan families.
Notable Programs
What Parents Are Saying
Mixed reviews: parents praise academic excellence, a family-oriented environment, and teachers who push students; some concerns about diversity, a rigid teaching approach, and handling of students with special needs; rated 3.2
Synthesized from public parent reviews · Apr 2026
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD a good school?
- Published quality ratings aren't available for CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD yet on Motley. It's a private school serving grades Pre-K to 8 in Cambria Heights.
- What grades does CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD serve?
- CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD serves grades Pre-K to 8.
- How do students get into CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD?
- CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD runs its own private admissions process — typically an application, a visit, and sometimes testing.
- Is CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD public, charter, or private?
- CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD is a private school.
- What neighborhood is CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD in?
- CAMBRIA CENTER-GIFTED CHILD is in Cambria Heights, Queens.