Pelham Gardens Middle School

Pelham Gardens sits clearly below the District 11 average on both state tests. ELA proficiency at 45.8% trails the district average of 56.7%, and math proficiency at 30.7% is roughly 25 percentage points behind the district's 55.6%. The school's overall quality score of 1.53 out of 4 also falls below the district average of 2.25. The encouraging thread is the long-term trajectory: ELA has climbed from 23% in 2016 to 45.8% in 2025, and math has nearly quadrupled from 8.6% to 30.7%. That said, neither subject has reached the district average yet, and the 2024 scores (36% ELA, 28.8% math) suggest the gains aren't perfectly steady. Scores by grade show the typical pattern — 8th graders perform best in ELA (55.4%) while math plateaus around the low-30s across grades 7 and 8.

The day-to-day feel at Pelham Gardens is one of unusually strong staff-family alignment. Teachers give leadership near-perfect marks (100% teacher-principal trust, 98% instructional quality), and parents return the favor with 95–96% trust in both teachers and the principal. Discipline is calm — only 3 suspensions in 2023–24 (a 1% rate, compared to a district average closer to 0.5% on a smaller population but still very low in absolute terms). However, attendance tells a different story: the 88.2% attendance rate is below the district's 91.2%, and chronic absenteeism at 53.9% means more than half of students missed 10% or more of school days. That gap between warm relationships and weak attendance patterns is the biggest tension here — families feel connected, but getting kids to school consistently is clearly a struggle.

The student body is majority Black (56%) and Hispanic (35%), with small Asian, White, and Native American populations, and a diversity index of 55%. The surrounding Pelham Gardens neighborhood reflects a mix of working- and middle-class households — median income of $90,004 and 56.5% homeownership — though the school's 81.5% economic need index indicates that a large share of students come from lower-income households than the neighborhood median suggests. About 27% of students have IEPs, which is notably high and worth understanding in context of support services.

Pelham Gardens is a largely residential pocket of the eastern Bronx with a strong middle-class backbone: median household income of $90,004, 56.5% homeownership, and a median home value of about $646,000. About 15% of neighborhood households have children, and 32.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The 13.1% poverty rate is moderate by city standards. The area feels rooted and family-oriented rather than transient, which lines up with the high parent-engagement numbers the school reports.

The school is not on top of a subway stop — families rely on the 5 train at Gun Hill Road, about a 14-minute walk, or the 6 train at Pelham Bay Park, about a 19-minute walk. Most students likely arrive by school bus, car, or on foot from the surrounding blocks rather than via the subway.