P.S./M.S. 031 The William Lloyd Garrison

Current proficiency sits at 37.3% in ELA and 45.1% in math — both below the District 7 averages of roughly 51% ELA and 49% math, and the school's overall rating of 1.65/4 is below the district's 2.01. But the trend line is genuinely striking: in 2016, only 13.6% of students hit ELA proficiency and just 8.9% hit math. By 2025 those numbers had reached 37.3% and 45.1%, with especially strong gains in the past two years. Grade-by-grade results reveal unevenness — Grade 3 math proficiency is 78.8%, but Grade 6 math drops to 27.1%, suggesting the upper-grade transition is a real stumbling block.

The day-to-day picture here is one of strong internal trust coexisting with real stress. Teacher-principal trust is an exceptional 98%, parent-teacher trust is 94%, and teachers rate instructional quality at 91% — well above the district average of 88%. But teacher-reported safety sits at 75%, below the district's 80.5%, and chronic absenteeism is severe at 72.9%, affecting nearly every demographic subgroup. Discipline, however, is a genuine bright spot: zero suspensions in 2023-24, matching or beating the 0.84% district average. Parent satisfaction is 90%, just shy of the 93.5% district mark.

The school mirrors its surrounding neighborhood closely: 66% Hispanic and 29% Black student bodies, with the census showing 34% of neighborhood residents living in poverty and a median household income around $40,255. About 91.7% of students qualify for high economic need — the second-highest tier. Despite that, with 648 students and average class sizes of 20.5, the school is large enough to offer real programming breadth, and 25% of students have IEPs, a meaningful slice of the population that programs like ELL Support and Peer Mediation are designed to serve.

Concourse-Concourse Village is a working-class, transit-accessible part of the Bronx where just 13.7% of households include children and only 11.1% of homes are owner-occupied — the area skews renters and adult-only households. Poverty is high at 34%, and only 15.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, so many families around this school are first-generation with the public school system. The neighborhood is densely urban and built around the Grand Concourse corridor.

Families can reach the school from 149 St-Grand Concourse on the 2 and 5 lines or from 161 St-Yankee Stadium on the 4, B, and D lines — each about a 9-minute walk. That's reasonable subway access for commuters from elsewhere in the Bronx or Upper Manhattan, though local families are more likely to walk.