Urban Academy Laboratory High School

The school-level proficiency figures aren't available in the data provided, so we can't benchmark Urban Academy's ELA or math results against the district's 73% ELA and 73% math averages. What we can say is that this is a District 2 high school with a 25.8 average class size — essentially identical to the district average of 25.8 — operating in one of the most academically credentialed neighborhoods in the city.

The climate signals are remarkably strong. Parents report 94% satisfaction, 95% trust in the principal, and 91% trust in teachers, while teachers give leadership a 97% trust score and rate instructional quality at 96% — well above the district average of about 90%. There were zero suspensions in the most recent reporting year, which is striking for any high school and suggests a restorative, community-based approach to behavior rather than a punitive one. The one caveat: only 53 parent survey responses came back (a 44% response rate) and just 16 teachers responded, so these glowing numbers come from a relatively small slice of the community.

The student body is more economically and racially mixed than its Lenox Hill address would suggest: roughly a third white, a third Hispanic, a quarter Black, with smaller Asian and multiracial shares, and an economic need index of about 50% — meaningfully higher than the neighborhood's 8% poverty rate. About a quarter of students have IEPs, which is a substantial share for a small school and likely reflects an intentional commitment to inclusion. In short, this is a neighborhood that reads as affluent on paper but a school community that pulls from a broader swath of the city.

The school sits in the Lenox Hill section of the Upper East Side, a neighborhood of roughly $138K median household incomes, 80% of adults holding a bachelor's degree, and a homeownership rate that hovers around 28% — most families here rent. About 18% of households include children, which is low for New York and means a lot of the immediate blocks are adult-only. The blocks around the school are dense with doctors' offices, boutique retail, and mid-rise residential buildings rather than the park-front townhouse stretch further east.

Three subway options sit within a seven-minute walk: the Q at 72 Street (about 5 minutes), the 6 at 68 St-Hunter College (about 6 minutes), and the M/Q at Lexington Av/63 St (about 7 minutes).