The Academy for Excellence through the Arts

Test scores here are in a different league than the district average. The school's 2025 ELA proficiency of 93.5% and math proficiency of 95.6% sit roughly 30 percentage points above the District 28 averages of about 63% in each subject, and the overall Quality Review score of 3.78 out of 4 is well above the district's 2.51. Looking back over nearly a decade, results have stayed consistently high — ELA has bounced in a tight 89-100% band and math in an 84-100% band, with no year falling below 84% in either subject. Scores by grade hold up across the building: Grade 3 (93% ELA, 97% math), Grade 4 (89% ELA, 94% math), and Grade 5 (98% ELA, 95% math) all post strong results, suggesting the gains aren't concentrated in one cohort.

The climate here looks genuinely warm and orderly. Teachers give leadership and their colleagues near-perfect marks — instruction quality at 99%, principal trust at 100%, collegial trust at 100%, and reported safety at 100%, all meaningfully above district averages. Families are nearly as positive: 93% parent satisfaction, 94% trust in teachers, 89% trust in the principal, and an unusually high 434-family survey response rate that signals real engagement. There were zero suspensions in each of the last three reported years. One thing parents should ask about directly: the data lists chronic absenteeism at 85.5%, which seems inconsistent with the 94.5% attendance rate — worth confirming what that figure actually captures before drawing conclusions. Day-to-day, this reads as a calm place where adults trust each other and students show up.

The student body skews Asian (37%) and White (37%), with Hispanic students at 16%, multiracial at 6%, Black at 5%, and Native American at 1% — a composition that closely mirrors the surrounding Forest Hills population, which is well-educated and relatively affluent. The economic need index of just 20.5 (versus a citywide average in the 60s or higher) tells you most families arrive without heavy financial pressure on the school. PTA fundraising tells the clearest story of all: $1,336 per student versus the district average of about $165, more than eight times higher, which speaks to both the resources in the community and how actively families participate.

Forest Hills is a stable, well-educated Queens neighborhood where about 61% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, median household income runs around $104,000, and the poverty rate sits at a low 7.8%. Roughly half of households own their homes (median value about $608,500), and about 18% of households include children — a family-friendly area without being overrun by them. The mix of long-time owners and newer arrivals creates a settled feel, and the strong academic reputation of District 28 schools more broadly is part of what draws families here in the first place.

Getting here by subway is easy. Forest Hills-71 Av (E, F, M, R) is about a 6-minute walk, 67 Av (M, R) is about 10 minutes, and 75 Av (E, F) is about 13 minutes — three stations across two lines give families plenty of route options.