At a Glance
A well-resourced Upper West Side zoned school where parent trust, a calm restorative culture, and steadily rising test scores come together.
Best suited for
Families zoned for the school who want a calm, high-achieving neighborhood experience with strong parent engagement — and who would rather skip the lottery or screening process required for the district's top gifted programs.
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
- Zero suspensions across three consecutive years point to a genuinely restorative school culture.
- ELA and math proficiency roughly 30 percentage points above district averages, with steady gains since 2016.
- 98% parent trust in both teachers and the principal — among the strongest family-school relationships in the district.
- PTA fundraising of $1,139 per student, nearly double the district average, funds enrichment the whole school benefits from.
- 100% teacher-reported safety and 92% instruction quality — both well above district norms.
Things to consider
- Limited racial diversity, with only 3% Black enrollment and a demographic profile that mirrors an affluent neighborhood more than the district as a whole.
- The 81.9% chronic absenteeism figure is unusually high and worth asking the school to clarify, especially since it pairs with a solid 93.1% attendance rate.
- Zoned admissions only — families must live within the zone to enroll, and that zone sits in one of the city's most expensive housing markets.
- Average class size of 23.1 matches the district average, so this isn't the small-class experience some private or screened programs offer.
- Grade 5 math proficiency of 78.1% trails the school's grade 3 and 4 results — a small dip worth tracking.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 3
P.S. 87 sits in District 3, which spans the Upper West Side and parts of Harlem. The district's top-rated schools — Special Music School, Anderson, and several Success Academy charters — are screened or charter programs; among traditional zoned neighborhood schools, P.S. 87 is among the strongest performers.
Academics
P.S. 87's 88.3% ELA proficiency and 83.9% math proficiency sit roughly 29 and 30 percentage points above district averages. The trajectory has been steadily upward since 2016, when ELA stood at 77.2% and math at 76.6%, and the school has held above 80% in both subjects for most of the past five years. Grade 5 math at 78.1% is the one soft spot — below the school's grade 3 and 4 results and below ELA in the same grade.
Culture
With zero suspensions across three consecutive years and 100% teacher-reported safety, this is a notably calm school. Parents report 93% satisfaction and 98% trust in both teachers and the principal — among the strongest family-school relationships in the district. The 81.9% chronic absenteeism figure is striking and unusually elevated, especially paired with a solid 93.1% attendance rate, and is worth asking the school about directly; teacher-reported instruction quality (92%) and principal trust (88%) are also well above district norms.
Community
The student body is 60% White, 17% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 9% Asian, and 3% Black — a profile that closely mirrors the affluent Upper West Side neighborhood around it. With an economic need index of just 12.8%, very few P.S. 87 families qualify as low-income. PTA fundraising of $1,139 per student, nearly double the district average, signals an engaged and well-resourced parent base that pours directly back into the school.
Neighborhood
The Upper West Side around P.S. 87 is one of Manhattan's more affluent neighborhoods, with a median household income of $151,940 and a poverty rate of just 8.3%. More than 80% of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree, and homeownership is relatively common for the city at 37.8%, with a median home value over $1.5 million. About 17% of households include children, so family density is moderate compared to younger-family neighborhoods elsewhere in the five boroughs.
The 79 St station on the 1 line is about a four-minute walk, the 72 St station on the 1, 2, and 3 lines is about seven minutes away, and the 81 St-Museum of Natural History stop on the B and C lines is also about a seven-minute walk.
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 (43% 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. 087 William Sherman 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. 087 William Sherman 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. 087 William Sherman a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 087 William Sherman earns an overall rating of 86/100 — 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 3 average.
- What grades does P.S. 087 William Sherman serve?
- P.S. 087 William Sherman serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 087 William Sherman?
- P.S. 087 William Sherman admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 087 William Sherman public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 087 William Sherman is a public school in NYC Community School District 3.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 087 William Sherman in?
- P.S. 087 William Sherman is in Upper West Side (Central), Manhattan.