M.S. 224 Manhattan East School for Arts & Academics

ELA at 50.3% is essentially at the district average of 49.8%, but math proficiency of 31% sits roughly 14 points below the district average of 45.2% — and that's the headline gap. The trend is also discouraging: math proficiency has slid from a 2019 peak of 48% down to 31% in 2025, while ELA climbed from 43.3% in 2016 to a high of 62.7% in 2022 before settling back. Grade 8 math (18.6%) is particularly worrying, well below even the school's own weaker averages. Students are reading near the middle of the pack but losing ground in math year over year.

The day-to-day feel is warmer than the test scores suggest. Parent-teacher trust sits at 92% and parent-principal trust at 89%, both healthy, and 96% of teachers rate instruction quality positively — well above the district's 87% average. Daily attendance at 90.2% beats the district mark. The fly in the ointment is chronic absenteeism: 66.3% of students miss enough school to be flagged, which is high and suggests the school is working hard against attendance headwinds. Discipline is mild but worth noting — six suspensions last year (3% rate, four times the district average), down from 11 the year before.

The student body is majority Hispanic (55%) and Black (28%), with 13% white students and small Asian and multiracial shares — a Latino-Black-white mix that gives a diversity index of 62%. An economic need index of 69.3 means most students come from households with limited resources, consistent with East Harlem's median household income near $44,000 and 29.5% poverty rate. About one in five students has an IEP, and ELL support is offered. Families here are choosing this school through a screened process — they're not zoned in by default.

East Harlem (South) is a working-class pocket of upper Manhattan where roughly 29.5% of residents live below the poverty line and median household income sits near $44,000. Homeownership is rare — under 8% — so most families around here are renters, and only 8.6% of households have children under 18, meaning this is mostly a neighborhood of adults and young singles. It's transit-friendly, though, with the Q at 96th Street a short walk and two 6 train stops (96th and 103rd) within ten minutes on foot.

The Q at 96th Street is about a 6-minute walk, and the 6 train at both 103rd Street and 96th Street is around 10 minutes on foot — solid subway access for getting to and from school.