At a Glance
A steadily improving Harlem school where parent trust runs high even as academic work continues
Best suited for
Families who want to be part of a school's growth story — parents who value strong home-school relationships and don't mind that academic results are still climbing toward grade level.
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
- Academic trajectory: math proficiency has roughly quintupled since 2016, and ELA has nearly doubled — a rare sustained climb among NYC elementary schools.
- Parent trust metrics exceed the district on every measured dimension, with a perfect 100% strong-relationships rating from families.
- An unusually rich extracurricular menu for a high-need school — 90/100 program richness score, including chess, debate, coding, comic book club, yoga, and a Saturday Academy.
- Discipline trend moving in the right direction: suspensions cut by more than half year over year.
- Strong arts programming (art, chorus, dance, theater, visual arts) alongside STEM offerings like coding and web design.
Things to consider
- Test scores, while improving, remain substantially below district averages — families should expect significant academic catch-up work, especially in middle school grades.
- Chronic absenteeism at 41% is a serious concern and will likely affect any child's experience here.
- PTA fundraising totals just $18 per student versus a district average of $87 — enrichment opportunities that depend on parent dollars will be limited.
- With 30% of students classified as IEP, classrooms include a high share of students with significant learning needs, which shapes the instructional environment.
- The school's overall quality score of 1.13/4 sits well below peer charter options in District 5 that score in the high 80s and 90s.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 5
Within District 5, P.S. 123 sits below the district average on most measured outcomes and well below the high-performing charter peers like Harlem Village Academy and Success Academy Harlem schools. It's a traditional public school doing meaningful improvement work rather than a top-of-class option.
Academics
ELA proficiency at 33% and math at 23.6% both sit well below the District 5 averages of roughly 54% and 51%. But the trajectory is genuinely encouraging: math proficiency has climbed from 4.7% in 2016 to 23.6% in 2025, and ELA has nearly doubled from 17% to 33% over the same period. The 2022 dip in math (down to 2.1%) reflects pandemic disruption, but the rebound since then has been steady year over year. Grade 4 is the academic bright spot — 44% ELA and 33% math proficiency — while grade 7 lags behind its peers within the school.
Culture
Parents feel strongly connected here: 92% are satisfied, 95% trust their child's teacher, and 100% of respondents report strong relationships — all above district averages. Teachers give their principal 84% trust and rate safety at 89%, both roughly in line with the district. The discipline picture is improving — suspensions dropped from 14 to 6 over the past year. The weaker spot is attendance: the 84.9% rate trails the district average of 88.6%, and 41% of students are chronically absent, a pattern especially pronounced among the small white subgroup at 68.2%.
Community
About 49% of students identify as Black and 44% as Hispanic, with a small mix of Asian, white, multiracial, and Native American students — a body that mirrors the surrounding Harlem neighborhood's demographics. The economic need index of 93.3% indicates almost all students come from low-income households, and 30% have IEPs, which is substantially higher than typical. With only 10% of neighborhood households including children, P.S. 123 serves as a critical anchor for the area's families.
Neighborhood
Northern Harlem is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood — only about 13% of households own property, and a quarter live below the poverty line. Median household income sits around $54,700, and just over a third of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Families with children under 18 are a minority of households here, which makes the school a real community hub for the kids who do attend.
Three subway options are within a short walk: the C and B trains at 135 St (about 5 minutes) and the B/D or A/C trains at 145 St (about 7 minutes each).
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
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science 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) · 221 families responded (60% rate)
Programs & Activities
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. 123 Mahalia Jackson 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. 123 Mahalia Jackson 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.
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Mahalia Jackson (P.S./M.S. 123)Unscreened47 seats
Middle school application
- Opened
- Wed, Oct 14
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 11
- Offers
- Wed, Apr 7
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the middle school application, in 5th grade.
- 2Unscreened programs fill by random lottery among the families who rank them.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
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. 123 Mahalia Jackson a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson earns an overall rating of 28/100 — 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 below the District 5 average.
- What grades does P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson serve?
- P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson serves grades Pre-K to 8.
- How do students get into P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson?
- P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson is a public school in NYC Community School District 5.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson in?
- P.S. 123 Mahalia Jackson is in Harlem (North), Manhattan.