Hunters Point Community Middle School

ELA proficiency at 64.4% sits comfortably above the district average of about 61%, and the trajectory is one of the clearer improvement stories in the data — from 47.9% in 2016 to the mid-60s today. Math at 54.5% trails the district average of roughly 62%, and has bounced around over the years (peaking at 61.3% in 2019, dipping to 45.6% in 2022, climbing back to 60.6% in 2024 before slipping to 54.5%). Grade-level results show a striking split: 7th-graders hit 67.6% in math while 8th-graders drop to 43.2% — suggesting the Regents year is a real stumbling block here.

The day-to-day culture has a split personality. Parents give the school near-unanimous marks — 93% satisfaction, 98% trust in the principal, 96% trust in teachers — and teachers rate their own instructional quality at 97%. But teachers' trust in their principal is only 75%, a 23-point gap from how families see leadership, and worth asking about. Zero suspensions over the past two years points to a genuinely restorative, non-punitive approach. The big flag is chronic absenteeism at 69.4%, meaning roughly seven in ten students miss 10% or more of school days, well above the district norm.

The student body is 53% Hispanic, 22% White, 10% Asian, and 10% Black, with 63.5% of students classified as having economic need and 23% with IEPs. The surrounding Hunters Point neighborhood tells a very different story: median household income above $158,000, only 6% poverty, and 80% of adults holding a bachelor's degree. This is the gentrification tension in pure form — a wealthy, fast-growing waterfront neighborhood whose local middle school draws a working-class, largely immigrant cohort.

Long Island City-Hunters Point is one of the fastest-changing pockets of Queens, with new high-rise development crowding the East River waterfront and home values approaching $900,000. Just 19.7% of households include children, reflecting a skew toward young professionals and recent transplants, and only about a fifth of residents own their homes. The neighborhood is highly educated, with more than 80% of adults holding a bachelor's degree, and family income is well above the citywide median.

The 7 train at Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue is about a six-minute walk; the G train at 21st Street and another 7 stop at Hunters Point Avenue are each roughly eleven minutes on foot.