Earth School

Earth School's ELA proficiency of 60% beats the District 1 average of about 52%, and math at 38.5% trails the district average of roughly 47%. The trajectory is the more interesting story: ELA collapsed to 27.6% in 2022 and has climbed sharply since, while math rebounded from a low of 16.7% in 2018 to 38.5% this year. Grade 5 results mirror the pattern — strong ELA at 63.2% but weak math at 33.3%. The school's overall quality score of 1.97/4 sits essentially right at the district average, so ELA strength and math weakness are balancing out.

This is a school where the adults clearly trust each other: parent-teacher trust is 96%, parent satisfaction is 93%, strong relationships are reported at 100%, and teacher-reported safety is at 100% — all well above district averages. Zero suspensions over three years point to a calm, relationship-driven environment. The notable exception is chronic absenteeism at 66.5%, which is high even though average daily attendance (91.4%) is solid — meaning most individual days are well-attended, but a large share of students are missing too many days across the year. That gap between strong climate and weak chronic attendance is worth asking about on a tour.

Earth School's 239 students are 45% Hispanic, 28% White, 11% Black, 10% multiracial, and 6% Asian — a diverse mix with a Hispanic plurality. The school serves a meaningfully higher share of students with IEPs (27%) than is typical, and an economic need index of 65.3 indicates most students come from lower-income households. The neighborhood around the school skews more affluent and more educated (median income about $88K, 59.5% with a bachelor's degree), but only 6.6% of East Village households include children, so the families who do send kids here are a small minority of the surrounding community.

The East Village is a dense, renter-dominated Manhattan neighborhood where most residents are adults without kids at home — only 6.6% of households include children. Median household income sits around $88K, just over half of adult residents have a bachelor's degree, and homeownership is just 13.9% against a median home value above $1 million. It's a neighborhood where the people who live there tend to be young professionals, long-time renters, and students, and the families who choose Earth School are carving out a public-school option in a part of the city where private and selective schools often dominate.

Three subway stations are within a 10–11 minute walk: Delancey St-Essex St on the F, M, J, and Z lines, and 1 Av on the L.