At a Glance
A public 6-12 school built around game-based learning, where 419 families apply for every 58 seats but academic scores sit well below its District 2 peers.
Best suited for
Families who prioritize progressive, project-based, and inclusive learning over test scores — especially those with students who haven't thrived in conventional classrooms and would benefit from a school that takes games, design, and self-directed quests seriously.
Overall Rating
Grades 3–8
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
High school
Rating = average of 4-year graduation, English Regents college-ready and Regents completion · DOE 2025 report
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- One of the original game-based learning public schools in the country, built around quests, systems thinking, and design challenges rather than traditional coursework.
- Program richness score of 100/100 — Chelsea's most expansive elective menu, including Game Design, Minecraft Club, Comic Book Club, Hip Hop Poetry, and Fencing.
- Zero suspensions across the whole school, paired with 32% IEP enrollment — an unusual combination of inclusive admissions and minimal discipline.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality of 98%, the highest single score on the school's climate survey.
- 14.3% offer rate makes this one of the hardest Manhattans middle schools to get into, despite its low overall academic rating.
Things to consider
- ELA proficiency at 37.4% and math at 31.7% are roughly half the District 2 average, and the 8th-grade math number (22.5%) is particularly low.
- Chronic absenteeism hits 61.2%, and male students are missing school at much higher rates (70.9%) — a pattern worth watching closely.
- PTA fundraising runs about $6 per student vs. the district's $517, so don't count on a parent-funding-driven enrichment machine.
- Only 26% of families completed the climate survey, so the glowing parent-trust numbers reflect a self-selected group.
- The school draws students from a far larger zone than Chelsea — if you're outside the immediate neighborhood, the commute matters.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 2
District 2 is one of New York's highest-performing districts, with a 2.91/4 average overall score, and the schools on this building's peer list (Lab schools, Success Academies, P.S. 290) are among the most sought-after in the entire city. Quest to Learn sits well below that peer group on academic measures, though it's not a traditional academic school by design — it competes on application demand and pedagogy instead.
Academics
Test proficiency here is a striking outlier in District 2: 37.4% ELA and 31.7% math proficiency, compared to district averages of 73% and 73%. The overall school score of 1.38/4 sits well below the district's 2.91/4 average. ELA has trended downward since a 2022 peak of 49.7%, and math scores have bounced around for a decade without breaking 40%. The picture isn't uniform within the building either — seventh-graders test considerably stronger than sixth- and eighth-graders, especially in math (47.6% vs. 22.5% in 8th grade), suggesting something happens to academic momentum as students approach high school.
Culture
The day-to-day climate is gentler than the academics suggest. Zero suspensions is remarkable for a middle-high school of this size, and teachers rate their own instruction quality at 98% — well above the district's 90%. Parents report very high trust in teachers (95%) and the principal (92%), though only 26% of families bothered to fill out the survey, so take that with a grain of salt. The weak spot is attendance: 61.2% chronic absenteeism, with boys (70.9%) missing dramatically more school than girls (51%), and the overall 89% attendance rate sits below the district's 92%. Teacher-to-principal trust at 75% is also noticeably lower than the other survey measures.
Community
Quest to Learn serves a student body that's 43% Hispanic, 25% Black, 18% White, and 10% Asian, with a 66.5 economic need index and 32% of students on IEPs — a notably inclusive profile that doesn't match the surrounding neighborhood at all. The school's diversity index of 77% is high, and 32% IEP enrollment is far above city norms, suggesting families actively seek out this school's approach to different learners. Meanwhile, the Chelsea-Hudson Yards census shows a wealthier, more educated population with relatively few households raising children, which helps explain why a 569-seat school draws families from well beyond the immediate blocks.
Neighborhood
Chelsea-Hudson Yards is a dense, high-income slice of Manhattan where the median household earns $122,639, three-quarters of adults hold a bachelor's degree, and the median home value hovers near $985,000. Only about 6.4% of households here include children, so families with school-age kids are the exception rather than the rule. The mix of luxury towers, art galleries, and a steady commuter flow shapes a neighborhood that feels more like a downtown office-and-retail hub than a place centered around schools.
The school is genuinely commuter-friendly: the 14 St (A, C, E) station is about a 4-minute walk, with the 8 Av (L) and 23 St (C, E) stops both about 6 minutes away.
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) · 92 families responded (26% rate)
Programs & Activities
Admissions Demand
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
PTA Fundraising
Source: DOE Local Law 171 disclosure
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. Quest to Learn admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Quest To LearnUnscreened96 seats
Middle school application
- Opened
- Wed, Oct 14
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 11
- Offers
- Wed, Apr 7
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the middle school application, in 5th grade.
- 2Unscreened programs fill by random lottery among the families who rank them.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
High school (9th grade)
High school is one citywide application, made in 8th grade. Quest to Learn admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Quest to Learn Upper SchoolEd. Opt.
High school application
- Opened
- Tue, Oct 6
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 4
- Offers
- Wed, Mar 3
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the high school application, in 8th grade.
- 2Educational Option programs fill in equal shares across three reading levels, half by the school's ranking and half by lottery.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
Open house
Thu, Nov 12, · 5:00 PM · In person
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Quest to Learn a good school?
- On Motley, Quest to Learn earns an overall rating of 35/100 — 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 2 average. Its high school grades have their own rating, 46/100, from graduation and Regents results.
- What grades does Quest to Learn serve?
- Quest to Learn serves grades 6 to 12.
- How do students get into Quest to Learn?
- Quest to Learn uses the Educational Option (Ed-Opt) method, ranking applicants across performance levels so seats go to a mix of abilities.
- Is Quest to Learn public, charter, or private?
- Quest to Learn is a public school in NYC Community School District 2.
- What neighborhood is Quest to Learn in?
- Quest to Learn is in Chelsea-Hudson Yards, Manhattan.