At a Glance
A Far Rockaway zoned elementary where trust runs deep and test scores are on the rise
Best suited for
Zoned families in Far Rockaway who want a community-trusted school with a social justice mission, strong teacher-family relationships, and a building where their kids will be known — and who can support a long-term academic climb rather than expect top test scores today.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- ELA proficiency nearly doubled in three years, the sharpest improvement visible in the data set.
- Zero suspensions and 96% teacher-reported safety make this one of the calmer buildings in the district.
- 100% of teachers report strong student relationships — every adult in the building.
- Parent-principal trust at 94% signals real family engagement, even with a modest 47% survey response rate.
- The school's explicit social justice identity shapes its curriculum and culture in a way most zoned schools don't.
Things to consider
- Test scores remain well below district averages, and the overall 1.32/4 score reflects that gap.
- Chronic absenteeism at 46.6% is serious — more than half of Hispanic students are chronically absent.
- The economic need index of 87.7 means most families here face real financial pressure that affects daily life.
- Class size of 23.4 matches the district average, so don't expect the small-class perk.
- The A train commute is walkable but not exactly around the corner, which matters in bad weather.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 27
Within District 27, this school sits below the district average overall score (1.32 vs 2.27) and well behind the highest-scoring peers like Success Academy South Jamaica and Peninsula Prep, both of which are charter schools pulling in the 90s. As a zoned public school serving a high-needs population, it plays a different role than those charters — but on raw scores it is clearly trailing.
Academics
At 36.2% ELA proficiency and 30% math, students here score well below the district averages of 56% and 57%. But the year-over-year movement is genuinely encouraging — ELA proficiency has nearly doubled since 2022 (from 21.5% to 36.2%), and math has recovered from a 2022 low of 15.5% to 30%. Older students are doing better than younger ones: fifth graders hit 44.1% in ELA, suggesting the school is building capacity as kids move up the grades.
Culture
The survey numbers here are striking — every teacher reports strong relationships (100%), 96% feel safe, and parent-principal trust sits at 94%, all comfortably above the district average. Discipline is essentially a non-issue, with zero suspensions last year. The concern is attendance: only 86.4% of students attend regularly, well below the district's roughly 90%, and nearly half (46.6%) are chronically absent — with Hispanic students (53.9%) and girls (50.4%) most affected. The school feels safe and connected, but getting kids through the door every day is a real challenge.
Community
The school serves a heavily Hispanic (69%) and Black (25%) student body, with an economic need index of 87.7 — meaning most families qualify for additional support. About one in five students has an IEP. The surrounding neighborhood has a median household income of $67,668 and a 17.6% poverty rate, which gives a clear sense of who walks through the door. This is a community-rooted school reflecting the working-class, predominantly immigrant character of Far Rockaway.
Neighborhood
Far Rockaway-Bayswater is a renter-heavy pocket of the Rockaways where only about 29% of households own their homes and roughly a quarter of adults hold a bachelor's degree. About 22% of households include children, making it a genuinely family-dense neighborhood despite the modest incomes. The median home value of $625,822 is notably higher than the income figure would suggest, pointing to a mix of older housing stock and newer construction along this stretch of the peninsula.
The school is about a 9-minute walk from the Far Rockaway-Mott Av A train stop and about a 17-minute walk from Beach 25 St on the A — walkable, but not door-to-subway access.
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) · 247 families responded (47% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice also has Pre-K classes. They're a separate application from kindergarten, made on MySchools.
Pre-K application
Applications typically open in the winter and close in the spring, with offers in late spring; the city announces exact dates each year.
Kindergarten
The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice has an attendance zone. At elementary level, in-zone students get a guaranteed seat. Every family still applies on MySchools: the application confirms the zoned seat, and ranking other schools doesn't cost you it.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Check that your address is inside the zone — zones change, so confirm it before you sign a lease.
- 2Apply during the kindergarten application, even with a zoned seat.
- 3Rank this school along with any others you'd take, in true preference order.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice a good school?
- On Motley, The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice earns an overall rating of 33/100 — 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 27 average.
- What grades does The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice serve?
- The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice?
- The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice public, charter, or private?
- The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice is a public school in NYC Community School District 27.
- What neighborhood is The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice in?
- The Randolph Holder School for Social Justice is in Far Rockaway-Bayswater, Queens.