PS 80 The Thurgood Marshall Magnet School of Multimedia and Communication

ELA proficiency landed at 62% and math at 60.7%, essentially matching the District 28 averages of about 62-63% — a major swing from the prior seven years, when scores hovered between 26% and 42%. Math at Grade 5 (51.1%) lags meaningfully behind Grade 3 (72.4%), so the upper grades are where this school is softer than the building average suggests. The trajectory reads as genuinely improving, but the single-year jump from 37% to 62% in ELA is large enough that I'd want to see a second year at this level before calling it a sustained turnaround.

The day-to-day feel here is unusually warm: parent-principal trust is 96%, parent-teacher trust is 95%, and every surveyed parent said the school builds strong relationships. Teachers trust each other (93% collegial trust) and report feeling safe (94%), and there were zero suspensions last year — a contrast with the district average of 0.37%. The catch is chronic absenteeism at 61.5%, well above what's considered healthy, meaning more than half of students miss enough school to flag concern, even though overall attendance (90.3%) is only modestly below the district's 91.4%.

Eighty-two percent of PS 80's roughly 385 students are Black, with small Hispanic (9%), Asian (3%), and other groups making up the rest — a concentration that mirrors the surrounding neighborhood more than the city as a whole. The economic need index of 65% signals meaningful but not extreme poverty, and 20% of students have IEPs, slightly above typical. The neighborhood around the school leans middle-income with a household median around $74,500, suggesting many PS 80 families are working- and middle-class rather than the lowest-income segment.

Springfield Gardens (North) and Rochdale Village is a residential, family-anchored corner of southeastern Queens with a homeownership rate near 37% and a median home value around $386,000 — solidly middle-class by borough standards, though not the wealthiest pocket. About a fifth of households include children, and roughly a quarter of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, so this is a community shaped more by working families and longtime residents than by newcomers or transient renters. The vibe is settled and local rather than busy or commercial.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, so most families get here by car, school bus, or local bus — plan for driving or ride logistics rather than expecting a quick A train commute.