J.H.S. 190 Russell Sage

ELA proficiency of 63.1% sits right at the district average (62.8%), while math at 58.8% trails the district by about four points (62.8%). The trajectory has been roughly steady over nearly a decade: ELA has hovered in the 60–67% band since 2018, while math has bounced between 54% and 65% without a clear direction — peaking at 64.7% in 2019, dipping to 54% in 2022, recovering to 63.2% in 2023, then slipping back to 58.8% this year. Grade 6 is the school's bright spot (70.8% ELA, 64.6% math), while Grade 8 math is the weakest link at 53.1%. Overall, the school lands just a hair below the district average on the 4-point rubric (2.44 vs. 2.51).

The survey picture is genuinely warm: 91% parent satisfaction, 94% parent-principal trust, and 88–91% across the teacher trust measures — most families and most teachers feel good about what's happening here. Discipline is the small wrinkle: the 1% suspension rate is roughly three times the district average, and suspensions ticked up from 4 to 9 year-over-year. The harder truth is attendance — regular attendance is 90.6%, slightly below the district's 91.4%, but chronic absenteeism runs at 66.1%, meaning more than two-thirds of students miss 10% or more of school days. Notably, absenteeism skews highest among multiracial (92.5%) and Asian (80.6%) students and lowest among Black (46.9%) and Hispanic (54.7%) students — an unusual pattern worth asking the school about.

With 1,082 students, J.H.S. 190 is one of the larger unscreened middle schools in Queens. The student body is genuinely diverse — 31% Asian, 28% Hispanic, 28% White, 8% Black, 4% multiracial, 2% Native American — with a diversity index of 81% and 13% of students classified as having IEPs. The economic need index of 44.8 sits in the middle of the range, reflecting a mix of comfortably middle-class families alongside those with greater need, even though the surrounding neighborhood skews relatively affluent. The school runs an ELL Support program, which fits a student body where Asian students make up the largest single group.

Forest Hills is a comfortably middle-class Queens neighborhood — median household income around $104,000, only 7.8% of residents below the poverty line, and 60.6% of adults holding a bachelor's degree. About 18% of households have children under 18, and nearly half of homes are owner-occupied, with a median value north of $600,000. The neighborhood reads as family-stable and education-forward, and the school draws most of its families from this base.

The 67 Av station (M, R) is about a 5-minute walk; Forest Hills-71 Av (E, F, M, R) is roughly 8 minutes; and 63 Dr-Rego Park (M, R) is around 14 minutes on foot.