At a Glance
A Melrose elementary where test scores have nearly doubled in two years and suspensions are zero — but two-thirds of students are chronically absent
Best suited for
Families living in or near Melrose who want an unscreened neighborhood public school with strong parent-teacher relationships and are willing to be active partners in pushing attendance and homework routines.
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
- Test scores have roughly doubled in ELA and nearly tripled in math since 2022 — among the sharpest upward moves you'd see in a District 7 elementary.
- Zero suspensions for two straight years, against a district average suspension rate of 0.84%, in a school serving a very high-need population.
- An unusually high Native American student share at 13% — distinctive for a Bronx elementary and worth asking about if that heritage matters to your family.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality hits 100% and parent-principal trust hits 96%, signaling a school where adults report strong alignment with each other.
- Unscreened admissions with PK and 3-K on site, making it accessible to neighborhood families without lotteries or tests.
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism at 66% is the defining daily challenge — roughly two-thirds of students miss enough school to be flagged, and that drags everything else down.
- Overall score of 1.72/4 is below the district average of 2.01, and both ELA and math proficiency remain below district averages despite the recent gains.
- PTA fundraising is essentially nominal ($1/student), so don't expect the kind of enrichment budget a well-resourced parent council can provide.
- Grade 4 scores lag behind grades 3 and 5, suggesting the middle of the elementary years is where this school is most stretched.
- The surrounding neighborhood has high poverty and limited household education attainment, so families looking for a peer cohort with more college-educated parents may need to look elsewhere.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 7
Across District 7, this school sits below the district average and well below the top charter peers like Leaders of Excellence (97/100) and South Bronx Classical Charter II (96/100), but its recent trajectory suggests it is gaining ground rather than falling further behind.
Academics
ELA proficiency at 45.9% and math at 40.3% sit below the district 7 averages of 51.3% and 49.0%, so by the static snapshot this school is behind its peers. But the trajectory is genuinely striking: ELA has more than doubled since the 2022 low of 21.3%, and math has nearly tripled from 14.7%. Grade 3 results are strong (48.6% ELA, 54.3% math) while grade 4 lags noticeably (32.6% ELA), suggesting the school's gains are real but uneven across cohorts.
Culture
On paper the climate looks strong: 100% of teachers rate instruction quality positively (well above the district's 88%), parent satisfaction is 95%, and parent trust in both teachers and the principal hits 96%. Discipline is essentially a non-issue — zero suspensions in 2022-23 and 2023-24, against a district average suspension rate of 0.84%. The shadow over all of this is chronic absenteeism at 66%, meaning two of every three students miss enough school to trigger the flag; attendance overall (90.1%) is just under the district average. The 39% family survey response rate is solid for a school like this and suggests the parent trust numbers reflect real sentiment, not thin data.
Community
Enrollment skews Hispanic (64%) and Black (22%), with an unusually large Native American population at 13% — far higher than typical for a Bronx elementary and a genuine distinguishing feature. The economic need index of 90.3 puts this among the highest-need schools in the city, and 24% of students have IEPs, well above the citywide norm. Class sizes average 20.5, basically identical to the district, and PTA fundraising works out to about a dollar per student — a signal that organized parent fundraising capacity is minimal.
Neighborhood
Melrose is a working-class South Bronx neighborhood with a median household income around $30,000, a poverty rate above 38%, and just 10% homeownership, so most families around the school are renters. About 16% of households have kids at home, and just 14% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, which means many families are first-generation navigators of the school system. The neighborhood is dense and transit-accessible for those who use it.
Families can reach the school via the 2/5 at Jackson Av in about a 5-minute walk, the 2/5 at Prospect Av in about 8 minutes, or the 6 at E 149 St in about a 12-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) · 144 families responded (39% 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. 157 Grove Hill 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
District 7 is a school-choice district, so it has no elementary zones: no address guarantees a seat at P.S. 157 Grove Hill. Families across the district apply on MySchools, and seats go to priority groups first (siblings, then families in the school's area — District 7 is split into a north and a south area), then by random lottery.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the kindergarten application.
- 2Rank every school you'd accept, in true preference order — with no zoned seat to fall back on, a longer list matters.
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. 157 Grove Hill a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 157 Grove Hill earns an overall rating of 43/100 — 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 7 average.
- What grades does P.S. 157 Grove Hill serve?
- P.S. 157 Grove Hill serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 157 Grove Hill?
- P.S. 157 Grove Hill admits by application through a random lottery, with no academic screen.
- Is P.S. 157 Grove Hill public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 157 Grove Hill is a public school in NYC Community School District 7.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 157 Grove Hill in?
- P.S. 157 Grove Hill is in Melrose, Bronx.