At a Glance
A large Staten Island elementary where academic results outpace the district and parents give near-unanimous trust to the principal.
Best suited for
Families zoned for the school who want strong academics, an unusually warm principal-parent relationship, and a large stable elementary community through 5th grade — and who don't mind a car-based commute.
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
- ELA and math proficiency both run roughly 13-18 percentage points above district averages.
- 98% parent-principal trust is among the highest in the district.
- Essentially zero disciplinary suspensions in recent years, with only one incident over three years.
- Math scores have climbed almost every year since 2016, with a 16-point gain over a decade.
- A large enrollment of 806 gives kids a broad peer group while they stay on one campus through 5th grade.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism is strikingly high at 76.2%, even though daily attendance looks fine — worth asking the school what they're doing about it.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality (88%) sits below the district average, even as parent satisfaction is very high.
- PTA fundraising per student ($105) trails the district average of $141, so parent dollars don't stretch as far as at some peers.
- No subway access makes this a tougher fit for families who don't drive or rely on public transit.
- Class size of 23.4 matches the district average — families prioritizing smaller classes will want to look elsewhere.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 31
P.S. 054 sits among the top-scoring elementary schools in District 31, with a 3.07/4 overall rating compared to the district average of 2.45 — placing it alongside strong peers like P.S. 35, Naples Street, and P.S. 005 rather than in the middle of the pack.
Academics
ELA proficiency at 79.1% and math at 74.2% both sit comfortably above District 31 averages of roughly 61% in each subject. Math has climbed almost continuously over the past decade, from 57.7% in 2016 to 74.2% in 2025. ELA has been more variable year to year, but the 2025 jump to 79.1% is the school's strongest result on record, pulling the overall trend clearly upward. Across grades 3-5, results are consistently strong, with Grade 3 ELA at 82.7% leading the way.
Culture
The day-to-day feel is parent-friendly and orderly: 95% parent satisfaction, 97% parent-teacher trust, and 98% report strong relationships with the school. Discipline is essentially a non-issue, with just one suspension in the most recent year and a 0% suspension rate. The catch: while daily attendance runs at 93% (above the district average), chronic absenteeism sits at a striking 76.2% — meaning most students miss at least 10% of school days, a concern worth raising with the school. Teachers also rate their relationship with the principal (83%) meaningfully lower than parents do (98%), and teacher instruction-quality scores (88%) trail the district average.
Community
The student body is roughly 41% Asian, 34% white, 16% Hispanic, and 7% Black, with a diversity index of 72% — fairly mixed but not the most heterogeneous in the city. About half of students qualify for economic need and 22% have IEPs, so the school serves a real economic and learning range rather than a narrow slice. That mix mirrors the surrounding neighborhood: a homeowner-heavy, middle-to-upper-middle-income community where about a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree and households with kids are common.
Neighborhood
The school serves the Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights area, where median household income is over $107,000 and nearly three-quarters of households own their homes. About 28% of households include children and 42% of adults hold at least a bachelor's degree — a solidly educated, family-oriented community. With car-dependent streets and no nearby subway, daily life runs on driving and school buses rather than transit.
This school is beyond walking distance of any subway — families rely on cars, buses, and parent pickup-and-dropoff routines to get to and from school.
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) · 324 families responded (42% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
PTA Fundraising
Source: DOE Local Law 171 disclosure
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng 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. 054 Charles W. Leng 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.
Make this school part of your plan
Everything on this page is yours to read. An account keeps your research in one place.
No credit card required
Compare head-to-head
Explore nearby
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng earns an overall rating of 77/100 — 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 above the District 31 average.
- What grades does P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng serve?
- P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng?
- P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng is a public school in NYC Community School District 31.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng in?
- P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng is in Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights, Staten Island.