At a Glance
A small Crotona Park East middle school climbing fast on test scores with outstanding parent trust — but chronic absenteeism and a teacher-leadership gap tell a more complicated story.
Best suited for
Families rooted in or near Crotona Park East who want a small, unscreened middle school with a strong parent voice and a full activity menu, and who are comfortable being part of an upward trajectory rather than enrolling into a school that has already arrived.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- Suspensions have dropped from 4 to 0 over two years — the school's Restorative Circles and Peer Mediation program is doing visible work
- Parent satisfaction and parent-principal trust both sit in the mid-90s, well above district averages
- Unusually strong test-score trajectory: ELA more than doubled and math roughly quadrupled since 2016
- Program richness score of 90/100 with a long menu including Saturday Academy, Drumline, Green Team, Cooking, and a school newspaper — rare at a school this size
- Arts offerings span Visual Art, Dance, Drama, Music, Theater, and Band
- Serves a high-IEP and high-economic-need population with ELL Support on site
Things to consider
- ELA and math proficiency remain well below district averages — the trend is real, but arriving families won't be enrolling into a top-performing program
- Grade 8 ELA proficiency of 24.7% is notably lower than grades 6 and 7, suggesting 8th-grade year is a vulnerable transition point
- Chronic absenteeism above 58% — more than half of students are missing enough school to be flagged for it
- Teacher-principal trust of 61% is a meaningful gap, especially given that parent-principal trust is 96% — families and staff may be experiencing this school very differently
- Teacher survey response was low (22 responses), so the staff-side data should be read with some humility
- IEP rate of 32% means the school is being asked to support a high level of student need with finite resources
Based on 2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 12
Within District 12, Fannie Lou Hamer's overall quality score of 1.1/4 sits below the district average of about 1.76/4. Several peer schools in the district score higher on standardized metrics — South Bronx Classical, Bold Charter, and Pharos Academy all rate 81 or above — so families choosing Fannie Lou Hamer over local charters are making a real tradeoff, generally in exchange for the stronger parent-school relationship and the wider extracurricular menu.
Academics
Proficiency is well below district averages — 31.7% in ELA versus the District 12 average around 45%, and 23.5% in math versus a district average near 43%. The trend line, however, is the most positive in this profile: ELA rose from 14.3% in 2016 to 31.7% in 2025, and math climbed from 6.2% to 23.5% over the same stretch, with particularly strong gains in the last three years. Grade 7 leads (37.5% ELA, 31.5% math), grade 6 is close behind, and grade 8 ELA lags at 24.7% — a pattern worth asking about. Overall school quality is rated 1.1 out of 4, below the district average of about 1.76.
Culture
The day-to-day feel here splits cleanly between two perspectives. Parents give the school rave reviews: 95% satisfaction, 96% trust in teachers, 96% trust in the principal — all above district averages, which is striking. Teachers, though, are more guarded: only 61% trust the principal and instruction quality is rated 82%, below the district average of about 88%. Collegial trust among teachers is 79%, decent but not strong. The bright spot in discipline is that suspensions have dropped from 4 in 2021-22 to zero in 2023-24 — a meaningful shift, likely connected to the school's use of Restorative Circles and Peer Mediation. The harder reality is attendance: 87.9% overall (below the district's 90.1%), with chronic absenteeism at 58.5%, climbing to 63.4% among Hispanic students.
Community
The 267 students are 70% Hispanic and 24% Black, a mix that mirrors the surrounding Crotona Park East neighborhood. The school serves a heavily working-class community — the economic need index is 92.3%, meaning nearly every student comes from a low-income household — and 32% of students have IEPs, which is high for a middle school and a useful signal that the school is being asked to support a wide range of learners. ELL Support is offered on site.
Neighborhood
Crotona Park East is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood — homeownership is under 10% and median household income sits around $41,000, with a poverty rate of 28.5% and just 14.7% of adults holding a bachelor's degree. Only about 15% of households have children at home, so this is more of an adult-heavy neighborhood than a young-family enclave. Median home value is around $599,000.
Three subway options within roughly a 10-minute walk: the 6 at Whitlock Avenue (about 7 minutes), the 2 and 5 at Freeman Street (about 6 minutes), and the 2 and 5 at 174th Street (about 9 minutes).
Academic Performance
ELA Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State ELA exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Math Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Math exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Historical Trends
The dashed line marks 2023, when New York changed its grades 3–8 state tests. Scores before and after it aren’t directly comparable.
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 78 families responded (35% rate)
Programs & Activities
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Fannie Lou Hamer Middle SchoolUnscreened65 seats
Middle school application
- Opened
- Wed, Oct 14
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 11
- Offers
- Wed, Apr 7
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the middle school application, in 5th grade.
- 2Unscreened programs fill by random lottery among the families who rank them.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School a good school?
- On Motley, Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School earns an overall rating of 28/100 — the average of the school's New York State ELA and math proficiency, grades 3–8, shown out of 100. Its state test results run below the District 12 average.
- What grades does Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School serve?
- Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School serves grades 6 to 8.
- How do students get into Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School?
- Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School public, charter, or private?
- Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School is a public school in NYC Community School District 12.
- What neighborhood is Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School in?
- Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School is in Crotona Park East, Bronx.