At a Glance
A large Concourse elementary where parent trust runs unusually high, even as chronic absenteeism signals a real challenge beyond the building
Best suited for
A working-class family zoned for the school who values a calm, relationship-driven environment and is willing to actively partner on attendance, and who doesn't need a charter-style academic profile.
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
- Parent-principal trust at 99% — among the highest in the district and far above the 94% district average.
- Three consecutive years with zero suspensions, pointing to a consistent restorative discipline approach.
- 2025 math proficiency (47.9%) sits above the district average for the first time in the available data.
- Large school (719 students) that still maintains an average class size of about 21 — smaller than it sounds.
- Teacher-reported safety at 100%, compared to a district average around 83%.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism of 60.7% is a real flag — most students are missing enough school to raise concerns, and this affects everything from test scores to social development.
- The 2025 score rebound is sharp and recent; it's too early to call it a sustained improvement versus a one-year bounce.
- The top-scoring schools in District 9 (Icahn, Success Academy) are charters, so families who want higher proficiency may be weighing an application against staying zoned.
- Proficiency drops meaningfully between third and fifth grade, so parents thinking K-5 should expect the upper-grade experience to feel different.
- The 53% family survey response rate, while reasonable, means the glowing climate numbers don't capture every family's view.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 9
Within District 9, this school sits above the district average on its overall 1.86/4 score (district average 1.79) and matches district averages on proficiency — solid middle-of-the-pack performance. The schools that top the district's peer list are selective charters scoring 90–99 out of 100, which is the competitive backdrop families here are navigating.
Academics
2025 proficiency of 44.9% ELA and 47.9% math lands this school essentially at district averages (44.8% ELA, 44.7% math) — a real turnaround from 2024's 25.2% ELA. But the longer trajectory tells a complicated story: scores hovered around 35–39% ELA pre-pandemic, fell sharply during the COVID years (bottoming at 25.2% in 2024), and have now rebounded. Whether this is durable recovery or a one-year bounce isn't yet clear. By grade, third-graders hit 50.6% ELA while fifth-graders land at 36.9% — a roughly 14-point drop that parents of older students should know about.
Culture
The school survey numbers here are remarkable: 98% parent satisfaction, 99% parent-teacher and parent-principal trust, 100% strong relationships, 100% teacher-reported safety, and 96% teacher instruction quality — all well above district averages. Three straight years of zero suspensions points to a calm, restorative approach to behavior. The big caveat is chronic absenteeism at 60.7%, meaning most students are missing enough school to be flagged — a serious signal even with attendance running at 89.6%. Also worth noting: only 53% of families responded to the survey, so the glowing climate numbers reflect a partial, self-selected picture.
Community
The student body is 70% Hispanic and 27% Black, with a small Asian and white minority — a close mirror of the surrounding neighborhood. The diversity index of 41% reads as low because the population is concentrated in two groups rather than spread across many. With 13% of students on IEPs and an average class size around 21, this is a typical large-city elementary in composition.
Neighborhood
Concourse-Concourse Village is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood — only about 11% of households own their homes, the median home value sits around $350,000, and the median household income is roughly $40,000 with over a third of residents living below the poverty line. Just under 14% of households have children at home, and only about 16% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, so many families here are navigating school choice with limited resources. The neighborhood is dense and transit-accessible, with the B and D trains stopping at 167th Street about an 8-minute walk from the school.
Families can reach the 167 St station on the B and D lines in about an 8-minute walk; the 170 St stop on the B and D is roughly 10 minutes, and the 170 St stop on the 4 line is about 13 minutes away on foot.
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
Historical Trends
The dashed line marks 2023, when New York changed its grades 3–8 state tests. Scores before and after it aren’t directly comparable.
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 317 families responded (53% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim 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
P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim has an attendance zone. At elementary level, in-zone students get a guaranteed seat. Every family still applies on MySchools: the application confirms the zoned seat, and ranking other schools doesn't cost you it.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Check that your address is inside the zone — zones change, so confirm it before you sign a lease.
- 2Apply during the kindergarten application, even with a zoned seat.
- 3Rank this school along with any others you'd take, in true preference order.
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. 053 Basheer Quisim a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim earns an overall rating of 47/100 — 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 9 average.
- What grades does P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim serve?
- P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim?
- P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim is a public school in NYC Community School District 9.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim in?
- P.S. 053 Basheer Quisim is in Concourse-Concourse Village, Bronx.