P.S. 020 Anna Silver

At 35.2% ELA proficiency and 34.2% math proficiency, P.S. 020 trails District 1 averages (roughly 52% ELA, 47% math) by a wide margin — students here are catching up, not leading. The trajectory is uneven: scores dipped sharply in 2022-23 (29% ELA, a low of 19.8% math in 2023) before rebounding in 2025, suggesting recent momentum though still short of where the school was in 2018-19. Worth noting: fourth-graders perform markedly better (43.9% ELA, 41.9% math) than third or fifth graders, which hints the gains don't always carry into the upper grades.

The climate story is the school's strongest signal. Parents report 95-96% trust with teachers and the principal — unusually high — and 89% overall satisfaction (above the district average of 88%). Teachers rate instruction quality at 96%, also well above district norms. Discipline is essentially a non-issue: just two suspensions last year. The shadow over all of this is 47.2% chronic absenteeism (vs. roughly 30% district-wide), with boys and the youngest students most affected — when nearly half of kids are missing extended stretches, it drags on everything else, including those test scores.

P.S. 020 serves 351 students, PK through 5, in a building that mirrors its block: 55% Hispanic, 20% Asian, 15% Black, and 8% White, with an economic need index of 75% — meaning three out of four students come from low-income households. The neighborhood around it tells a similar story, with median household income well below the city median and a quarter of residents living in poverty. PTA fundraising lands at just $136 per student, less than half the district average — a tell that fundraising capacity, not parent engagement, is the constraint.

The Lower East Side around P.S. 020 is a densely packed, working-class neighborhood with deep immigrant roots — about a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, and renter households dominate in a market where the median home value tops $800,000. About 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, but incomes tell a tighter story than education levels would suggest. It's a neighborhood built on foot traffic and subway commutes rather than car ownership.

The school is about a 5-minute walk from the Delancey St-Essex St station (served by the F, M, J, and Z lines) and the 2 Av station on the F — a genuinely transit-rich location for families commuting from elsewhere in Manhattan or Brooklyn.