I.S. 289

Math is the clear strength here — 81.9% proficiency vs. the district average of 72.5% — and has climbed from 68% in 2016 to nearly 82% in 2025, a remarkable trajectory. ELA proficiency at 68.9% sits about 4 points below the district average of 73.2%, with scores bouncing between 69% and 80% over the past several years rather than showing steady improvement. By 8th grade, students hit 88.1% ELA proficiency and 81.1% in math, suggesting meaningful growth across the middle school years.

Parent trust is exceptional — 96% trust the principal, 95% trust teachers, 91% are satisfied overall — paired with an 84% family survey response rate that signals highly engaged families. But teacher-principal trust lags at just 73%, a notable gap that suggests some friction between staff and leadership beneath the polished parent-facing numbers. The 94.5% average attendance rate looks healthy on its face, yet the reported 82.4% chronic absenteeism rate is hard to reconcile with that figure and is something to ask the school about directly. Discipline remains light — a 1% suspension rate — though suspensions have ticked from 0 to 2 over the past three years.

The student body is 46% Asian and 27% White, with 17% Hispanic and 6% Black — a notably different mix than the surrounding Financial District-Battery Park City neighborhood, which is overwhelmingly White and very high-income. An economic need index of 47 and 23% of students with IEPs point to a more economically and racially mixed population than the immediate zip code would suggest, with ELL support offered as a program. This is a school that draws from a wider geography than its Lower Manhattan address implies.

The Financial District-Battery Park City neighborhood is among Manhattan's wealthiest, with a median household income over $192,000, a 6.1% poverty rate, and an 82.7% college-educated rate — but only 14% of households include children, meaning most residents are adults without school-age kids. The $1.27 million median home value signals a high-amenity residential area built largely around luxury towers and waterfront. For the families who do have kids here, getting around by subway is the norm.

Chambers St (1, 2, 3) is about a 6-minute walk, with WTC Cortlandt (1) and World Trade Center (E) each around 8 minutes away.