Frank McCourt High School

No state ELA or math proficiency figures were reported for this school, so academic standing can't be benchmarked against the district averages (59% ELA, 54% math). What we can say: admissions are highly selective, with 1,607 students applying for just 85 seats, and teachers rate instructional quality at 95% — meaningfully above the district average of 87%. A quarter of students have IEPs, which is notable for a screened school and suggests the school works to support a meaningful range of learners rather than weeding them out at the door.

This is a school where adults report working well together. Teachers rate collegial trust at 94%, principal trust at 93%, and instructional quality at 95% — all well above the district averages of roughly 87–94%. Parents, however, come in lower: 82% parent satisfaction versus the district's 88%, and only 27% of families bothered to respond to the survey, which is a soft signal of how connected the parent body feels. Zero suspensions is striking for a high school — there's a calm, structured culture here. The day-to-day feel is more like a collaborative workplace than a typical large urban high school.

The student body is more Hispanic and less White than you might expect given the surrounding neighborhood's demographics. About 43% of students are Hispanic and 35% White, with 11% Black, 6% Asian, and small shares identifying as Multi-Racial or Native American. The economic need index of 49.6 means roughly half the students come from lower-income households — much higher than the neighborhood's 8.3% poverty rate would suggest. Families are clearly choosing to send kids into this neighborhood from elsewhere, which gives the school a more economically mixed character than its zip code.

The Upper West Side (Central) is one of Manhattan's most college-educated and affluent neighborhoods, with a median household income of about $152,000 and over 80% of adults holding a bachelor's degree. Homeownership is relatively low at 38% and the median home value tops $1.5 million, signaling a renter-heavy area with limited family-sized housing stock — only 17% of households here have children. The poverty rate is low at 8%, but the school draws students from across the city, so the school community looks quite different from the block it's on.

Three subway stations serve the area: the 86 St stop on the 1 line about a 4-minute walk away, the 86 St C/B stop about 6 minutes, and the 81 St–Museum of Natural History C/B stop about 7 minutes. Plenty of options for getting here from anywhere on the west side or crosstown.