P.S. 033 Chelsea Prep

ELA proficiency at 64.4% and math at 61% both fall well below the District 2 averages of roughly 73% and 73% respectively. Grade-by-grade, third graders post the strongest ELA results (70.4%), but fourth-grade math (56.5%) and ELA (55.4%) pull the average down. Looking back nearly a decade, scores have been bumpy rather than directional — ELA has bounced between 58% and 71%, and math has trended modestly downward from 67.8% in 2016 to 61% today, with 2024 a noticeable dip before this year's partial rebound. The school is doing real work, but on paper it sits in the middle of the district pack, not near the top.

This is a school with a striking split in its survey data. Families are unusually enthusiastic — 95% parent satisfaction, 97% parent-teacher trust, 96% parent-principal trust — all running above the district average. Teachers tell a more complicated story: only 69% rate instruction quality as strong (district average is roughly 90%), 72% trust the principal, and just 82% report feeling safe on campus (district average is around 95%). The day-to-day discipline environment is calm — zero suspensions three years running — and chronic absenteeism is the headline concern at 60.3%, with school-wide attendance at 88% versus a district average of about 92%. Parents clearly feel heard by leadership; staff seem to want more support or clearer direction.

P.S. 033's student body is one of the more genuinely mixed in the district: 28% Hispanic, 26% Asian, 20% White, 19% Black, and 7% multiracial, with a diversity index of 87%. About half the students qualify as economically needy (ENI 49.6%) and 17% have IEPs — a meaningfully higher share than many District 2 peers. The school draws from a neighborhood (Chelsea-Hudson Yards) that is notably higher-income and whiter than its student body; only 6.4% of neighborhood households have children, reflecting the area's skew toward young professionals and older residents rather than families.

Chelsea-Hudson Yards is one of Manhattan's most rapidly redeveloped and wealthiest ZIP codes, with a median household income near $123,000 and a striking 74.7% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. Homeownership is low (26.5%) and only 6.4% of households include children — meaning this is a neighborhood of renters, professionals, and recent transplants more than stroller-pushing longtime locals. The school sits among gleaming new towers rather than the old tenement Chelsea of a generation ago, and its halls reflect the city's diversity more than the immediate block.

Families can reach the school via the 23rd Street C/E stop (about a 5-minute walk), the 23rd Street 1 stop (about a 9-minute walk), or the 34 St-Hudson Yards 7 train (about a 10-minute walk).