P.S. 128 The Lorraine Tuzzo, Juniper Valley Elementary School

P.S. 128 outperforms District 24 by a wide margin: 69.1% ELA proficiency versus a district average of 51.1%, and 62.8% math proficiency against 54.8%. The eight-year trend shows clear improvement from 2016 (65.9% ELA / 59.5% math) through a 2023 peak (75.5% / 72.3%), though scores dipped in 2024 and 2025 without collapsing back to baseline. The school's overall rating of 2.64 out of 4 sits well above the district's 2.12. Scores by grade are reasonably even in the middle grades (4 through 7 hover in the 63–75% range), but Grade 8 lags noticeably at 58.6% ELA and 52.2% math — worth asking about if you have an older child.

Day-to-day, this school reads as calm and family-driven. Teacher-reported safety is 100% — the highest possible, and well above the district average of 95% — and there were only 2 suspensions last year against a district average suspension rate of 0.2%. Teachers give instruction quality a 94% (above district), and parent-teacher trust is 94%, which suggests a school where adults are generally aligned. One thing to flag honestly: chronic absenteeism sits at 78.8%, which is very high. The pattern is unusual — Asian (89.5%) and White (85.6%) students are absent far more often than Hispanic (64.9%) or Black (60%) students. Worth asking the school what's behind those numbers before assuming anything about classroom engagement. Note also that only 17 teachers responded to the survey, so the teacher-side numbers are based on a small sample.

The school mirrors its block: overwhelmingly White (71%) and Hispanic (20%), with a small but meaningful Asian population (7%) and very few Black or multiracial students. That's a narrower mix than most NYC public schools, and it lines up with Middle Village's older, homeowner-heavy population. Fifteen percent of students have IEPs, and ELL support is offered, though the school doesn't appear to have a large English-learner population.

Middle Village is a solidly middle-class slice of Queens — median household income around $93,000, a low 7.2% poverty rate, and more than half of households owning their homes, with a median home value north of $870,000. About a fifth of households have kids under 18, and a third of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher. It's the kind of place where families tend to stay once they arrive.

Most families likely arrive by car or on foot from within the zone. The closest subway is the M at Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue, about a 7-minute walk away, with Fresh Pond Road on the M line as a secondary option about 17 minutes on foot.