Frederick Douglass Academy V. Middle School

ELA proficiency at 41.7% sits just below the district average of 44.6%, and the trend line is the headline here — scores climbed from 16.9% in 2016 to 44.2% in 2024, more than doubling over the decade. Math is the harder story: at 18.7%, it is less than half the district average of 43.3%, and after a hopeful jump to 33.1% in 2024, the 2025 number fell back sharply. Grade 6 ELA is solid at 57.1%, but scores decline steeply by grade 8 (31.6%), suggesting students struggle to hold onto momentum as they progress through middle school. The school's overall quality score of 1.21/4 trails the district average of 1.76.

Inside the building, teachers report healthy relationships — collegial trust at 85% and principal trust at 82%, both near district norms — and teacher-rated instruction quality at 85% suggests staff feel solid about their craft. But the family-facing picture is weaker. Parent satisfaction sits at just 48.8%, far below the district's 91.8%, and the family survey response rate was only 2% (three parents total), so it's hard to know how representative that number really is. Attendance is a serious concern at 87.2% (district average 90.1%), with chronic absenteeism at 53.4%, meaning more than half of students miss enough school to be flagged. Discipline is also trending the wrong way: suspensions rose from 3 in 2021–22 to 7 in 2023–24, and the 4% suspension rate is roughly ten times the district average.

The student body reflects the surrounding neighborhood closely: 69% Hispanic and 25% Black, with small shares of White, Asian, Multi-Racial, and Native American students. At 230 students with an average class size of 22, this is a small school where most families share similar cultural and economic backgrounds. Twenty-nine percent of students have IEPs, and ELL support is available, indicating the school serves a population with real and varied learning needs. The diversity index of 46% reflects meaningful but not extreme diversity.

Tremont is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood in the central Bronx. Median household income sits around $32,000, the poverty rate is above 36%, and only about 7.5% of households own their homes — typical of a neighborhood where most families rent. Just 15% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and only 13% of households include children, reflecting both the economic squeeze and the relatively young profile of the area. Despite the school being in a densely residential part of the Bronx, the transit picture is thin: the nearest subway stations are all roughly a 16- to 17-minute walk away.

Families have limited transit options nearby — the closest stations are the 2 and 5 trains at 174th Street and at West Farms Square–East Tremont Avenue, both about a 16-minute walk, and the B and D trains at 182–183rd Streets, about a 17-minute walk. Most students likely rely on school buses or car rides rather than the subway.