Mott Haven Community High School

Public proficiency data for this school isn't included in the available figures, so it's hard to benchmark academic outcomes directly against the district's 51% ELA and 49% Math averages. What stands in for academics here is the instructional environment: 100% of teachers rate instruction quality as strong, compared with a District 7 average of 88%, and the average class size of 20.5 mirrors the district norm. With 39% of students classified as IEP and an economic need index of 90.6, this is a school focused on reaching students who arrive with significant outside challenges.

The day-to-day climate is shaped by an unusually strong teaching culture. Every teacher surveyed rated instructional quality as high, and 91% trust the principal — both well above district norms. Discipline is essentially a non-issue, with zero suspensions against a district rate of 0.84%. The parent picture is more mixed: parent-teacher trust sits at 92% and parent-principal trust at 86%, but overall parent satisfaction lands at 84%, about nine points below the district average. Worth flagging is the small sample — only 20 teachers and 36% of families responded to the surveys, so a fuller picture would require more voices.

The student body is 61% Hispanic and 35% Black, with small shares of white, Asian, and Native American students — a diversity index of 48% that reflects two large groups rather than broad mixing. Ninety percent of students qualify as high economic need, and 39% have IEPs, both well above citywide norms. This is a school that mirrors its Mott Haven-Port Morris surroundings almost exactly: working-class, immigrant-rooted, and heavily reliant on the social and academic supports the school itself tries to provide.

Mott Haven-Port Morris is a working-class, heavily renter neighborhood where the median household income sits around $29,000 and four in ten residents live below the poverty line. Just 12% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and homeownership is rare at 6%, meaning most families rent and many move periodically. Households with children make up 12% of all homes, so the school is meaningful infrastructure for the families who do live here.

The school sits within a few minutes of three subway stations: the 6 train at E 143 St–St Mary's St (about a three-minute walk), the 6 at E 149 St (about five minutes), and the 2 and 5 at Jackson Av (about nine minutes on foot).