Elementary School for Math, Science, and Technology

The numbers are sobering. ELA proficiency at 11.5% sits about 33 percentage points below the district average, and math at 18.3% trails by roughly 25 points. There is no clean trend — scores have yo-yoed between 14% and 23% in ELA over the past decade, dipped sharply during the pandemic years, and have bounced unevenly since. The most recent year shows ELA falling from 21.8% to 11.5% and math softening from 21.5% to 18.3%, so the trajectory is more concerning than steady. By grade, fourth-graders posted just 2.9% ELA proficiency and third-graders only 11.9% in math — signals that students arrive significantly behind and aren't catching up at the rate they need to.

With zero suspensions over three years, this is a notably calm school — a meaningful contrast to many District 10 peers. The attendance rate of 92.8% is actually a touch above the district average. But chronic absenteeism tells the other half of the story: 71.2% of students miss 10% or more of the school year, rising to 81% among Black students, which directly suppresses academic outcomes. Parent satisfaction (77%) and teacher-rated instruction quality (73%) both run 15-18 points below district averages, suggesting families and staff see real room for improvement in the classroom experience. The day-to-day feel is likely orderly and relationship-driven; the question is whether that calm is translating into momentum or masking disengagement.

The student body is 79% Hispanic and 19% Black, mirroring the surrounding Fordham Heights census tract where the median household income is just over $40,000 and roughly a third of residents live in poverty. The diversity index of 33% reflects the neighborhood's relative homogeneity — this is a school serving one community, not a melting pot. With 242 students across PK-5, classrooms stay small enough (about 23 kids on average) that teachers can plausibly know each child by name, and 20% of students have IEPs. The families who walk through these doors are navigating significant economic pressure on the other side of the school doors.

Fordham Heights is a working-class, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in the central Bronx where most residents rent (only about 1% own their homes) and roughly one in three households lives below the poverty line. Just under 12% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and only one in five households includes children — meaning families with school-age kids are a minority of the households around them, but they tend to be densely packed in family-sized apartments near the border with University Heights. The neighborhood's character is shaped less by affluence than by the tight-knit routines of multigenerational households.

Three subway lines serve the area within a short walk — the B and D at 182-183 Sts (about 3 minutes), the 4 at 183 St (about 5 minutes), and the 4 at Burnside Av (about 6 minutes) — making this one of the easier commutes in the district.