Central Park East II

On the most recent state tests, 29% of students reached proficiency in ELA and 30.9% in math — both well below the District 4 averages of roughly 50% ELA and 45% math. The school's overall quality score of 1.2 out of 4 also trails the district average of 1.9. The ELA picture is especially concerning: after holding in the low-to-mid 40s from 2016 through 2024, proficiency fell sharply to 29% in 2025 — the largest single-year drop in the data. Math has been on a slower downward arc since 2016 (when it was 45.9%) and now sits in the low 30s. By grade, the weakest results appear in grades 4 and 5, where ELA dips into the low 20s and math into the mid 20s; grade 8 math is the bright spot at 40%.

The day-to-day feel here leans warm and trusting. Parent satisfaction lands at 91% — right at the District 4 average — but the deeper trust signals are stronger: 94% of parents trust their child's teacher and 92% trust the principal. Teachers rate instructional quality at 90% (above the district average of 87%) and safety at 88% (above the district's 87%), and 87% of teachers report trust in the principal. Discipline is essentially a non-issue — the school recorded just one suspension in 2023-24 and none the year prior, a near-zero trajectory that's notably below the district average. The big asterisk is attendance: 85.8% is below the district average of 87.7%, and the chronic absenteeism rate is 46.5%, meaning nearly half of students are missing enough school to raise flags. That kind of absence pattern drags down everything else, including test scores.

Central Park East II's student body closely mirrors its East Harlem surroundings. About 48% of students identify as Hispanic and 31% as Black, with smaller shares of White (11%), Asian (5%), and multiracial students (4%), giving the school a diversity index of 70%. The economic need index of 72.9% tracks with the neighborhood's 29.5% poverty rate, and 32% of students have IEPs — a high share that adds real complexity to classrooms. With 388 students and an average class size around 20, the school is small enough that families tend to know each other, and the ELL support program is a meaningful resource for the families who need it.

Central Park East II sits in East Harlem (South), a predominantly renter neighborhood where median household income is around $44,000 and roughly 30% of residents live below the poverty line. Homeownership is unusually low at under 8%, while about 38% of adults have a college degree or higher — a neighborhood with real economic pressure but also real educational attainment. Schools like this one are central anchors in a tight community fabric, even though only about 9% of neighborhood households include children under 18.

Families have decent transit access. The closest station is 96 St on the Q line, about a 7-minute walk, with the 6 train farther east at 103 St (~10 minutes) and 110 St (~14 minutes).