The Urban Assembly School for Global Commerce

Class size sits right at the district average of about 19 students. The curricular signal is the program list: AP Courses, three world languages (French, Mandarin, Spanish), STEM offerings in coding and robotics, and dedicated ELL Support. Admissions tell their own story — 232 applicants competed for 64 seats, a 25% offer rate that says families are actively choosing this school rather than landing there by default.

Day-to-day, this school reads as a well-run small school with strong parent connections. Parent trust scores cluster at 96% across satisfaction, parent-teacher, and parent-principal trust, and 99% of teachers rate instructional quality highly. Zero suspensions is a striking number worth pausing on. The standing tension sits between teachers and administration: only 60% of teachers report trusting the principal, even as 93% trust each other — a gap that deserves a candid question on any school visit.

Students here are predominantly Black (45%) and Hispanic (53%), with very small numbers in every other racial category — a profile that closely mirrors East Harlem itself. The economic need index of 94.8 places nearly all students in high-need circumstances, and about 38% have IEPs, pointing to a school that's structured to support a wide range of learners within a single building.

The school sits in East Harlem, where median household income runs about $36,700 and roughly a third of households live below the poverty line. Homeownership is rare at 8%, and about 29% of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree — lower than many Manhattan neighborhoods. The student body draws heavily from families who call this area home, and the school's demographics track that closely.

Transit access is solid. The 125 St station on the 4, 5, and 6 lines is about a 5-minute walk, the 125 St station on the 2 and 3 is roughly 8 minutes, and 135 St on the 2 and 3 lines is about 11 minutes away.