J.H.S. 074 Nathaniel Hawthorne

Above district averages on both ELA (80.6% vs 75.8%) and math (85.6% vs 80.2%), with an overall score of 3.32/4 versus 3.12 for the district. The trend is a clear upward climb — ELA proficiency jumped from 67.5% in 2016 to 80.6% in 2025, and math rose from 76.8% to 85.6% over the same span. Seventh graders are the strongest cohort, hitting 83.8% in ELA and 87.5% in math, though all three grades post solid numbers.

Families feel heard here — parent-principal trust sits at 95% and parent satisfaction at 92% — and attendance is strong at 96%, well above the district's 94.4%. Discipline is essentially a non-issue, with a 0% suspension rate and just three suspensions last year, though that number has crept up from one in 2021-22. Worth flagging: teachers rate the quality of instruction at 83%, which is meaningfully below the district's 89.9%, even though teachers report high collegial trust (92%) and solid principal trust (87%).

Two-thirds of students are Asian-American (67%), with the remaining third split among white (14%), Hispanic (13%), and small Black (3%), multiracial (2%), and Native American (1%) populations. The student body mirrors the surrounding neighborhood fairly closely — Oakland Gardens-Hollis Hills is a solidly middle-to-upper-middle-class area, though the school draws some students from a wider catchment than just the immediate blocks.

Oakland Gardens-Hollis Hills is one of the more affluent, family-anchored neighborhoods in Queens. Median household income is $104,212, just 5.8% of households live below the poverty line, and 72.5% of homes are owner-occupied. About a quarter of households include children, and 52.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, putting it among the more education-rich neighborhoods in the borough.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, so most families get here by car, school bus, or are picked up by parents — public transit isn't really part of the daily routine.