At a Glance
A large, screened Staten Island middle school on a remarkable upward arc — math proficiency has nearly tripled over the past decade.
Best suited for
Families committed to a longer commute who want a screened middle school with deep extracurriculars, a clearly upward academic trajectory, and strong teacher leadership — and who are willing to partner with the school on attendance.
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
- Math proficiency nearly tripled in a decade (21.7% in 2016 to 55.3% in 2025) — one of the sharpest sustained gains in the borough.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality sits at 98%, well above the district average of 93% — staff feel strongly supported in their work.
- A rare 100/100 program richness score, with deep offerings across arts (jazz band, film, theater), STEM (coding, robotics, math team), and academic enrichment (Saturday Academy, Algebra I for 8th graders).
- Screened admissions mean the school draws motivated families from across Staten Island, not just the immediate neighborhood.
- Suspensions dropped 64% over two years — a clear shift toward restorative approaches like peer mediation and restorative circles.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism at 58.5% is high — roughly three out of five students miss enough school to be flagged, which can blunt even strong academic gains.
- ELA and math proficiency both still trail the district average, even with the upward trajectory — your child may be among the cohort pushing those numbers up rather than starting from a high base.
- The school is car-dependent; there is no subway within a 20-minute walk, so a commute plan matters.
- Nearly a third of the student body has an IEP, so demand on special-education resources is meaningful — worth asking how caseloads are managed.
- The student body looks quite different from the immediate neighborhood demographics, which is a strength for diversity but worth understanding if you're weighing the community your child will be part of.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 31
With an overall score of 2.07/4, the school sits below the District 31 average of 2.45, but it's one of the few middle schools in a district whose strongest-rated schools are elementary. The rapid academic improvement and 100/100 program richness make it a notable — if still developing — option in the borough.
Academics
On the most recent state tests, 48.2% of students reached proficiency in ELA and 55.3% in math — both below the District 31 averages of about 61%, but the year-over-year gains are striking. Math proficiency has nearly tripled since 2016 (21.7% to 55.3%), and the climb has accelerated since the post-pandemic dip in 2022. By 8th grade, math proficiency reaches 63.8%, suggesting the school's academic supports compound over time. ELA has also more than doubled from its 2016 low, and the overall school score of 2.07/4 — below the district's 2.45 — reflects where the school is now, not where it's headed.
Culture
Day-to-day, the climate tells two different stories depending on which numbers you look at. The parent and teacher surveys are remarkably warm: 92% of parents are satisfied, 95% trust the principal, and an exceptional 98% of teachers rate instruction quality positively — well above the district's 93%. But 58.5% of students are chronically absent, and overall attendance (88%) trails the district's 91.4%. Discipline is moving in the right direction — suspensions fell from 64 in 2021–22 to just 23 in 2023–24 — suggesting the school has invested in restorative practices over punitive ones. The high absenteeism, particularly among white and Asian students (73.6% and 70.5%), is the one metric that doesn't yet match the energy of everything else here.
Community
The student body is Hispanic (48%), Black (22%), White (20%), and Asian (6%), with an economic need index of 71.6 — meaning most students come from households facing financial pressure. That picture is notably different from the surrounding Westerleigh-Castleton Corners neighborhood, where median household income tops $126,000 and homeownership is nearly 80%. The gap suggests the screened admissions process pulls motivated families from across Staten Island rather than just the immediate area, and 31% of students have IEPs, so the school carries a heavier-than-average special-education caseload.
Neighborhood
Westerleigh-Castleton Corners is a quiet, owner-occupied pocket of Staten Island — almost 80% of homes are owned rather than rented, the poverty rate sits at just 4%, and just over a quarter of households include children. It's a stable, family-oriented area with a median home value north of $640,000. Getting here requires a car or a school bus; the nearest subway is more than a 20-minute walk away, which is typical for this part of the borough.
This school is beyond walking distance of any subway station — most families will rely on a car, school bus, or ride to get here.
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) · 328 families responded (31% 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. I.S. 051 Edwin Markham admits through 2 programs, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Edwin Markham (I.S. 51)Zoned297 seats
- Edwin Markham (I.S. 51) Spanish Dual Language ProgramScreened25 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.
- 2Screened programs rank 4th-grade course grades, so last year's report card is the one that counts.
- 3Zoned programs give priority to students who live in the zone — a priority, not a guaranteed seat.
- 4Rank 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 I.S. 051 Edwin Markham a good school?
- On Motley, I.S. 051 Edwin Markham earns an overall rating of 52/100 — 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 31 average.
- What grades does I.S. 051 Edwin Markham serve?
- I.S. 051 Edwin Markham serves grades 6 to 8.
- How do students get into I.S. 051 Edwin Markham?
- I.S. 051 Edwin Markham is a screened school — it admits by application, ranking applicants on their course grades (4th grade for middle school, the 7th-grade core-course average for high school); a few schools add an assessment, writing sample, or interview.
- Is I.S. 051 Edwin Markham public, charter, or private?
- I.S. 051 Edwin Markham is a public school in NYC Community School District 31.
- What neighborhood is I.S. 051 Edwin Markham in?
- I.S. 051 Edwin Markham is in Westerleigh-Castleton Corners, Staten Island.