Mott Hall II

Mott Hall II's current ELA proficiency of 46.4% sits roughly 13 points below the District 3 average of 59.3%, and math proficiency of 33% trails the district by about 21 points — a substantial gap. The trajectory tells the more sobering story: in 2016, ELA was 66.3% and math 58.4%, both comfortably above district norms. By 2025, both had eroded considerably, with math shedding more than 25 points across the decade. The dip is sharpest in sixth grade (ELA 38.8%, math 18.2%), suggesting incoming students arrive underprepared, and even by eighth grade scores have not climbed back to where the school once stood.

The day-to-day feel here is warmer than the test scores suggest. Parents report high trust in teachers and the principal, and the family survey response rate of 83% shows families are actively engaged. The discipline picture is genuinely improving — suspensions have dropped from 17 in 2021-22 to 8 in 2023-24 — though the current 2% suspension rate is still well above the district average of 0.39%. The softer signal is in the staff data: only 78% of teachers report trust in the principal, and instruction quality sits at 81%, roughly six points below the district average, hinting at some friction between leadership and faculty.

The student body is genuinely mixed: 43% Hispanic, 26% White, 23% Black, and 4% Asian, with a 72% diversity index. The economic need index of 55.7 indicates a majority of students come from lower-income households, even though the surrounding neighborhood skews wealthier and more college-educated than the city as a whole. This mismatch — a relatively affluent, well-schooled census area feeding a school where most families qualify for assistance — is one of the more interesting dynamics at Mott Hall II and shapes who actually walks through the doors.

The school sits in the Upper West Side-Manhattan Valley area, where the median household income tops $100,000 and more than 60% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Homes are expensive — typical values above $1 million — but only 28% of households own, and just 14% include children, which partly explains why a screened public middle school like this can still pull a majority of students from lower-income families. The neighborhood around the school is dense, walkable, and well-served by transit.

The 1 train covers this block well — Cathedral Pkwy (110 St) is about a 3-minute walk, 103 St about 6 minutes, and 116 St-Columbia University about 8 minutes, all on the same line.