At a Glance
A small, Hispanic-majority middle school where families report strong relationships but test scores lag behind the district
Best suited for
Families in eastern Bushwick who value a small school, strong family-staff relationships, and a wide menu of extracurriculars — and who are willing to be hands-on partners around attendance and behavior — will likely be the best fit here.
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
- An unusually rich extracurricular menu — 90/100 program richness score with offerings like Debate, National Junior Honor Society, Urban Advantage science partnerships, and specialized high school test prep
- Near-perfect teacher-to-principal trust (100%) and very high teacher-rated instructional quality (99%)
- A genuinely small enrollment (~284 students) that allows for closer adult-to-student relationships
- Accelerated/Honors academic track available, rare in a school at this performance level
Things to consider
- Suspension rate has tripled over three years and runs about three times the district average — families should ask about behavior systems and what's driving the increase
- Chronic absenteeism hits nearly two-thirds of students, which can undermine even strong teaching
- Test scores remain well below district averages in both ELA and math, with notable grade-level variation
- Teacher collegial trust is markedly lower than teacher-principal trust (69% vs. 100%), suggesting weaker collaboration among the adults
- Family survey response is low (18%), so parent perspectives may not fully reflect the full parent population
- A homogeneity index of 20% means students get limited exposure to peers from different backgrounds
Based on 2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 32
Roland Hayes sits well below the middle of District 32 on overall quality (0.9/4 vs. the district's 1.78 average). Peer schools like Success Academy Bushwick (96/100) and P.S. 376 (80/100) post significantly stronger ratings, and families in the area often have well-regarded alternatives a short commute away.
Academics
Test scores here are a mixed picture. ELA proficiency rose meaningfully from about 10% in 2016 to 25.4% in 2025, though the school's level is still roughly 20 percentage points behind the district average of about 46%. Math has bounced around more — peaking at 29% in 2023 before slipping to 19.5% — and also trails the district's 43% by a wide margin. Seventh-graders outperform their sixth- and eighth-grade peers on both subjects, suggesting either a strong cohort or uneven instructional quality across grades.
Culture
The day-to-day feel at Roland Hayes looks warm but stressed. Parent satisfaction (93%), parent-teacher trust (92%), and parent-principal trust (94%) all match or beat district averages, and teachers give the principal a perfect 100% trust score. But teacher-to-teacher collegial trust sits at just 69%, and chronic absenteeism hits nearly two-thirds of students — far above healthy levels. Discipline is the thing families should watch most closely: suspensions have nearly tripled over three years (4 to 11), and the school's 4% suspension rate runs well above the district average of about 1%.
Community
This is overwhelmingly a Hispanic-serving school — 92% of students identify as Hispanic, with 6% Black and small slivers of other groups. The student body mirrors the surrounding neighborhood, where similar demographics and a high economic-need index (90) shape daily life. The diversity index is low at 20%, reflecting how concentrated the population is.
Neighborhood
Bushwick (East) is a working-class neighborhood where median household income sits around $67,000 and about 24% of residents live in poverty. Homeownership is rare (20.5%) even though median home values approach $950,000, a hallmark of a quickly gentrifying area. Just 11.5% of households have children, and about a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree.
Families have solid subway access — the M train at Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues is about a 6-minute walk, the M at Knickerbocker Avenue is about 7 minutes away, and the L at Myrtle-Wyckoff is also roughly a 7-minute walk
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
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) · 51 families responded (18% 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. J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes admits through 2 programs, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Rising HAWKSScreened28 seats
- Zoned ProgramZoned70 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
Open house
Wed, Nov 4, · 4:00 PM · In person
Open house
Thu, Nov 12, · 1:00 PM · In person
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
Make this school part of your plan
Everything on this page is yours to read. An account keeps your research in one place.
No credit card required
Compare head-to-head
Explore nearby
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes a good school?
- On Motley, J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes earns an overall rating of 23/100 — 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 32 average.
- What grades does J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes serve?
- J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes serves grades 6 to 8.
- How do students get into J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes?
- J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes 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 J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes public, charter, or private?
- J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes is a public school in NYC Community School District 32.
- What neighborhood is J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes in?
- J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes is in Bushwick (East), Brooklyn.