Jonas Bronck Academy

ELA proficiency of 60.8% and math proficiency of 58.7% both sit well above District 10's averages (~45% ELA, ~43.5% math), and science proficiency of 44.6% adds a third data point above peer norms. Math is the standout trajectory: from 27% in 2016, through a volatile stretch (a 31.5% dip in 2022, then 35.7% and 44.5%), math has reached its highest point on record this past year. ELA has been steadier, oscillating in the 43%–69% range, with 2025 in the upper half of that band. Scores also dip as students move into higher grades — Grade 6 at 67.4% in both ELA and math falls to Grade 8 at roughly 54%/49% — a pattern worth asking the school about directly.

Day-to-day, this is a calm school by the numbers: just one suspension in 2023-24, a rate near zero, against a district average closer to 0.3%. Parent satisfaction is at 96% and parent-principal trust at 97% — both well above district averages — and teachers rate their colleagues and instructional quality in the mid-90s as well. The figure parents should ask the school about is chronic absenteeism: 84.4% of students missed 10% or more of school days, a high number even in a post-pandemic context. Daily attendance of 94% is solid (district ~91%), so the chronic-absence picture is concentrated in a subset of students rather than a whole-school pattern.

The student body is 73% Hispanic and 17% Black, with smaller Asian (5%) and White (4%) shares — overwhelmingly working-class, with an economic need index of 84 and 22% of students classified as IEP. Enrollment is small (268) and screened, which tends to attract families who are intentionally picking their middle school, and the demographic profile of the school closely mirrors the surrounding Belmont block rather than the wider Bronx. The 47% diversity index reflects a single dominant community rather than a wide mix of backgrounds.

Belmont is a dense, working-class Bronx neighborhood where renters far outnumber owners (only 3.8% homeownership), median household income sits in the low $30Ks, and more than a third of households fall below the poverty line. Households with kids are a small share of the census tract, and BA+ education rates are modest, so the school draws from a community where many families are juggling tight budgets. Daily life runs on transit: most families commute by subway rather than by car.

The building is about a 7-minute walk from Fordham Rd on the B and D lines, with Kingsbridge Rd (also B and D) another couple of minutes farther on foot and the 4 train at Kingsbridge Rd roughly 12 minutes away.