Space Shuttle Columbia School

Both ELA (64.9%) and math (65.1%) proficiency are modestly above the District 31 averages of 61.3% and 61.0%, and the trend is the more important story. From 2016 to 2025, math proficiency climbed from 35.2% to 65.1% — a near-doubling — while ELA moved from 47% to 64.9%. The school has rebounded from a 2022 dip and now posts balanced grade-by-grade results across Grades 3 through 5, with Grade 4 math at 73.6% leading the way. Overall, this is a school that has clearly moved from below-average to above-average over the past decade.

The climate numbers here are among the strongest in the district. Parent satisfaction sits at 94% (vs. a district average of 93.3%), parent-principal trust hits 98%, and teacher-reported safety is at 100% — meaningfully above the district's 94.8%. Zero suspensions have been recorded for three consecutive years, which is genuinely unusual even at the elementary level. The puzzle is chronic absenteeism at 78.4%, with Asian students at 93.8% and female students at 81.4% — meaning more than three-quarters of the student body miss 10% or more of school days. Overall attendance is 93.1%, better than the district's 91.4%, but the chronic-absence figure is a real counterweight to an otherwise strong climate picture.

The student body mirrors the surrounding neighborhood reasonably well: 43% white, 25% Asian, 26% Hispanic, with smaller Black and multi-racial populations, and a diversity index of 71%. Just over a fifth of students (22%) have IEPs, and the economic need index sits at 52.4 — pointing to a mixed, not predominantly low-income, school population. Around 684 students are enrolled with average class sizes of about 23, the same as the district average.

The school serves the New Springville–Willowbrook–Bulls Head–Travis area, a largely residential stretch of Staten Island where median household income is around $98,000 and 76% of households are owner-occupied — both well above city norms. About a quarter of households have children, and roughly a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. This is a stable, car-reliant, family-oriented pocket of the borough rather than a densely walked urban neighborhood.

There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school — families here rely on cars, school buses, or the Staten Island Ferry plus a connecting bus to get around.