At a Glance
A small East Village elementary where strong teaching outweighs uneven attendance
Best suited for
Families who want a tiny, walkable East Village school with strong instruction and a high level of inclusion support — and who are prepared to stay engaged around attendance as their child gets older.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- Science proficiency at 90% — among the strongest in the area for an unscreened school.
- Zero suspensions and a 96% teacher instruction quality rating — classrooms feel orderly and rigorous.
- ELA and math proficiency both running a few points above District 1 averages.
- An unusually high IEP rate (41%) means inclusion and supports are a core part of daily life here.
- Tiny enrollment (176 students) means small-school feel — your child's teachers will know them.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism near 48% — nearly half the students are missing significant school, which affects everyone.
- Parent satisfaction at 75% is below the District 1 average; ask current parents what they're seeing.
- Fifth-grade math proficiency drops to 42% — a real dip from fourth grade worth investigating.
- Few families with children in the immediate neighborhood (6.6% of households) — most kids likely travel from outside the immediate area.
- High economic need index (67.8%) means the school serves a population that may need more family resources to navigate.
Based on 2022-23 data
School SummaryDistrict 1
District 1 has some of the city's most celebrated elementary schools (NEST at 99, Shuang Wen at 87, East Village Community at 80), and P.S. 019 sits in the middle of that pack — not a flagship, but consistently performing a few ticks above district averages.
Academics
ELA proficiency of 55.4% edges out the District 1 average of about 52%, and math at 52.8% is meaningfully ahead of the district's roughly 47%. Science proficiency at 90% is a standout, suggesting students are genuinely engaging with hands-on or well-taught science curriculum. The trend over the past several years is mixed — ELA peaked at 58.5% in 2019 before dipping back, and math has bounced between roughly 48% and 58%. Scores by grade show a notable dip in fifth-grade math (42.3%) compared with fourth grade (63%), which parents of older students here should ask about.
Culture
Teacher-reported instruction quality is excellent at 96% — well above the district average of 87% — which suggests classrooms feel rigorous and well-run. The discipline picture is unusually clean: zero suspensions. However, chronic absenteeism is high at 48.2% (roughly matching the district average), and parent satisfaction sits at 75.2%, noticeably below the District 1 average of about 88%. That gap between high teacher quality and lower parent satisfaction is something worth asking the school about directly.
Community
The student body is majority Hispanic (57%), with sizable Black (18%), White (12%), and Asian (6%) populations, and a diversity index of 68%. An IEP rate of 41% is significantly above typical and shapes what classrooms look like — there's a high level of inclusion and supports here. The East Village neighborhood around the school skews young and educated (59.5% of adults have a bachelor's degree) but has a poverty rate of 24.7% and very few households with children (6.6%), which helps explain why this school stays small.
Neighborhood
The East Village around this school is a dense, walk-up neighborhood where homeownership is rare (13.9%) and the typical home value runs over $1 million — a sign of a very expensive, renter-heavy area. Median household income is about $87,700, but a 24.7% poverty rate shows real economic contrast block to block. Only 6.6% of households here have children, which is low for NYC and partly explains why a small school like this can stay small even in a populous district.
Three subway stations are within easy walking distance: the L at 1st Avenue (about 4 minutes) and 3rd Avenue (about 5 minutes), and the 6 at Astor Place (about 7 minutes).
Academic Performance
ELA Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State ELA exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Math Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Math exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Historical Trends
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2021-22)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 019 Asher Levy also has Pre-K classes. They're a separate application from kindergarten, made on MySchools.
Pre-K application
Applications typically open in the winter and close in the spring, with offers in late spring; the city announces exact dates each year.
Kindergarten
District 1 is a school-choice district, so it has no elementary zones: no address guarantees a seat at P.S. 019 Asher Levy. Families across the district apply on MySchools, and seats go to priority groups first (siblings, then families in the district), then by random lottery.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the kindergarten application.
- 2Rank every school you'd accept, in true preference order — with no zoned seat to fall back on, a longer list matters.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is P.S. 019 Asher Levy a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 019 Asher Levy earns an overall rating of 54/100 — the average of the school's New York State ELA and math proficiency, grades 3–8, shown out of 100. Its state test results run in line with the District 1 average.
- What grades does P.S. 019 Asher Levy serve?
- P.S. 019 Asher Levy serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 019 Asher Levy?
- P.S. 019 Asher Levy admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 019 Asher Levy public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 019 Asher Levy is a public school in NYC Community School District 1.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 019 Asher Levy in?
- P.S. 019 Asher Levy is in East Village, Manhattan.