Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and the Sciences

The school's academic identity centers on its AP course offerings, ELL support, and Spanish language instruction, anchored by its selective Teaching Institute program, which drew 824 applicants for 241 seats last cycle. Specific proficiency data wasn't included in this report, so we can't compare directly to the district's 76% ELA and 80% math averages, but the program's 70/100 richness score suggests a solid core curriculum without the breadth of the city's best-stocked schools. The 17% IEP population paired with ELL support indicates real investment in students who need academic scaffolding.

Zero suspensions is the headline number here — that's not just good, it's exceptional for a high school of nearly 1,000 students and well below the district's already-low 0.1% rate. Parents give the principal a strong 91% trust score and rate parent-teacher trust at 88%, both healthy signs. However, teacher-principal trust sits at just 70%, meaningfully below the 90% range you'd want to see, and only 9% of families responded to the survey while PTA fundraising effectively totaled $0 per student — signaling the parent community isn't deeply activated. Day-to-day, this likely feels orderly and respectful, but the school seems to run more on staff professionalism than on active parent partnership.

The student body is 49% Black, 20% Asian, 20% Hispanic, and 5% white, with a 71% diversity index that puts it in solidly mixed territory. This doesn't mirror the surrounding Bellerose neighborhood, which is largely homeowner-occupied (nearly 70%) with a $103,818 median household income and a poverty rate of just 8.3% — a profile typical of eastern Queens. The economic need index of 51.3 reflects a middle-of-the-road student population that doesn't quite match the affluence of its immediate surroundings, suggesting the school pulls from a wider area than its walk zone.

Bellerose is a quiet, residential pocket of eastern Queens with a strong suburban feel — over two-thirds of homes are owner-occupied, the median home value tops $637,000, and just 22.7% of households have children under 18. About 38% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits well below the city average. This is a stable, family-rooted area, though it's notably disconnected from the subway system.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, which means most families will arrive by car, school bus, or a longer transit-and-walk combination. Plan the commute accordingly.