P.S. 052 Queens

The school's overall quality score of 1.25 out of 4 is well below the district average of about 2.21, and that's visible in the raw proficiency numbers: 37.6% of students hit ELA proficiency versus a district average near 57%, and just 25% hit math proficiency against a district average of roughly 54%. The trend line, though, tells a more hopeful story. ELA proficiency bottomed out at 17.2% in 2022 and has climbed every year since, reaching 37.6% in 2025 — the highest in the dataset and more than double the pandemic-era low. Math is flatter and currently sitting at 25%, down slightly from 28.3% last year, suggesting math recovery is still a work in progress. Third-graders are the school's bright spot (42.3% ELA, 38.5% math), while fifth-grade math at 23.7% and especially fourth-grade math at 17.5% drag the averages down.

This is where P.S. 052 surprises you. Parent satisfaction is 94%, parent-teacher trust is 99%, and parent-principal trust is 99% — all meaningfully above district averages. Teachers report similarly strong trust in their principal (99%) and in each other (95%), and 94% rate instruction quality positively. Teacher-reported safety sits at 92%, essentially matching the district. The discipline picture is unusually clean: zero suspensions across three consecutive school years, compared to a district average suspension rate of about 0.9%. The one major flag is attendance — 88.3% is below the district's 90.9%, and chronic absenteeism is very high at 50.2%, with boys (56.3%) and Black students (52.8%) disproportionately affected. That gap between strong family trust and weaker attendance suggests the relationships are real, but getting kids physically to school every day is the ongoing challenge.

The student body is 68% Black and 23% Hispanic, with small Asian, white, and multiracial shares. The economic need index of 80.5% means four out of five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a much higher concentration of poverty than you'd guess from the neighborhood around it — Springfield Gardens-Brookville has a median household income over $109,000 and a homeownership rate above 64%. In other words, this zoned school serves a population that doesn't quite mirror its immediate surroundings, drawing families from across the catchment area.

Springfield Gardens-Brookville is a stable, middle-income residential pocket of eastern Queens with a median household income around $109,650 and a homeownership rate of 64.5%. About 17% of households have children, and a quarter of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The poverty rate is relatively low at about 10%, and median home values sit near $618,000 — this is owner-occupied, car-oriented Queens rather than a dense urban neighborhood.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk, so families reach P.S. 052 by car, school bus, or local bus routes rather than the subway.