Our World Neighborhood Charter School

Test scores here outpace the district — 68.1% in ELA versus 60.67% district average, and 66.3% in math versus 62.15% district average — earning an overall quality score of 2.69 out of 4, above the district's 2.46. Looking at the grade-by-grade breakdown, there's real momentum: 8th graders hit 80.6% in ELA and 76.9% in math, both exceptional, while even the lower-performing 6th grade math (55.2%) is solid. The historical trend is wavy rather than linear — scores dipped in 2022 (math particularly, to 48.5%) then rebounded strongly in 2023 before settling into the current range. For a school where more than half the students come from economically disadvantaged households, these results reflect genuine academic strength.

The climate data tells a nuanced story. Teachers absolutely trust leadership — 96% teacher-principal trust and 94% collegial trust — and 100% report feeling safe at work, both well above district averages. Families also feel heard: 92% parent-teacher trust and 90% parent-principal trust. But there's a tension: parent satisfaction sits at 86%, slightly below the district average of 93%, and chronic absenteeism is strikingly high at 78.5% — nearly 8 in 10 students are chronically absent, with rates highest among white students (79.4%) and lowest among Black students (67.4%). This suggests some families may be choosing to keep kids home for reasons beyond illness, or that attendance enforcement is weaker than peers. The 93% average daily attendance rate itself is actually fine (slightly above district average), so the chronic absenteeism metric may be capturing something about how absences are being categorized or about family engagement patterns rather than raw truancy.

The student body closely mirrors Astoria's demographic reality — 41% Hispanic, 29% white, 19% Asian, 5% Black, and small numbers of multiracial and Native American students — giving the school a diversity index of 78%. More than half (56.1%) of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 12% have IEPs, showing the school serves a meaningful mix of economic backgrounds. The neighborhood around the school is affluent by NYC standards (median household income $103,839, though homeownership is low at 13.5%), so there's a mix of families who can and cannot afford rising housing costs sharing the same school community.

Astoria is a densely populated, transit-heavy corner of Queens known for its mix of established Greek, Hispanic, and increasingly young professional communities. The neighborhood scores poorly on safety (33rd percentile) and transit access (38th percentile), though it scores highly on education orientation (67th percentile) and family density (69th percentile). The area around the school has elevated environmental health concerns — asthma emergency department rates and lead exposure rates both run higher than ideal — but it's also full of restaurants, parks, and the kind of neighborhood texture that makes families feel rooted. Median home values near $1 million suggest most families here are financially comfortable, though the 10.5% poverty rate indicates some struggle.

Astoria is very walkable, and many families likely walk or take the subway (though transit scores here are lower than in Manhattan). The low homeownership rate (13.5%) suggests many families rent, which may correlate with the high chronic absenteeism if families are more mobile or less invested in local school culture.