Jacob Riis School

No public proficiency scores were available for this school, so direct comparison to the district's roughly 73% ELA and 73% math averages isn't possible. Most District 2 peer schools publish strong results, and the absence here makes academic performance hard to benchmark for outside families. The data gap is itself worth noting — it suggests either limited reporting or a school that operates outside the competitive test-score ecosystem that drives District 2 rankings.

No attendance, parent satisfaction, or teacher survey data was reported, making the day-to-day climate difficult to read from the outside. What does stand out is zero suspensions — a notably clean record for a middle school, suggesting either strong classroom management or a small enough enrollment where incidents are rare. Average class size of 25.8 essentially matches the district average of 25.8, so overcrowding isn't an issue.

School-level demographic data wasn't provided, but the surrounding neighborhood paints a clear picture: median household income around $35,000, a third of residents in poverty, and just 7.8% of households with children. This is a densely populated, largely renter community with a long-standing immigrant character and modest educational attainment. The students at Jacob Riis are almost certainly drawn from that pool — a fundamentally different population than District 2's mostly affluent flagship families.

Chinatown-Two Bridges is a dense, working-class Lower Manhattan neighborhood where the median household income is roughly $35,443 and a third of residents live below the poverty line. Homeownership is rare at 10.4%, and just 30.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, reflecting the area's deep immigrant roots. Only 7.8% of households have children, meaning the school draws from a relatively narrow slice of the surrounding community.

Three subway options are within an 11-minute walk: the J and Z at Chambers Street (about 8 minutes), the 4, 5, and 6 at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (about 8 minutes), and the J and Z at Canal Street (about 11 minutes).