East Side Middle School, New York NY

Original Research by School Decision on East Side Middle School

East Side Middle School is a regular public middle school serving grades six through eight in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on East 91st Street. It draws enrollment of roughly four hundred students and serves a materially different student body than many other New York City middle schools.

About half of the enrollment is white, with Asian students making up another meaningful share and Hispanic and Black students representing smaller portions. A notable share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing many East Side families in modest income brackets despite the neighborhood's overall affluence. The data on English learners and students with disabilities was not available, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about the breadth of support services on offer and what the composition looks like in those populations.

In state testing, East Side Middle performs at a level above the midpoint among districts in New York County. The sixth-grade cohort achieved solid proficiency in English language arts and respectable proficiency in math. Seventh grade shows notably strong math results, nearly in the high range for the grade. Eighth-grade English shows strength as well. Math proficiency data for eighth grade was not reported, as was science data for that grade, so the testing picture is incomplete for the oldest cohort; a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand whether eighth graders are taking algebra or other advanced math, and how science coursework is structured.

The school sits in a heavily walkable neighborhood anchored by public transit. New York City's subway is one of the most dense and accessible rapid transit networks in the country, making school commutes from across the city feasible. The Upper East Side itself is characterized by mixed-use buildings, ground-floor commerce, and dense residential occupancy. Families in the broader vicinity tend toward substantial household wealth, reflected in neighborhood home values well above state and national benchmarks. Rents are correspondingly high. This context means the school draws from a zip code where housing costs are a major constraint for working families and even moderate-income households, yet pockets of affordability do exist through rent stabilization and publicly subsidized housing.

The city has recently undergone a major overhaul of Gifted and Talented admissions at the elementary level, eliminating standardized entry exams and moving to teacher nomination and lottery. This change does not directly affect middle school admissions at East Side, but it shapes the pipeline of incoming sixth graders and signals the district's ongoing interest in access equity. Families considering the school might also want to understand its own admissions policies and whether it participates in any screened or selective admissions at the middle grades.

Program details beyond core academics were not available in the data, so asking the school about arts, languages, athletics, and any honors or advanced coursework would round out the picture of what a typical student's day looks like there.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

New York Regents Exams

2 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Math	127	93.0%
Science	124	86.0%

Math

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 71% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 791%

School 91% · District 80% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 51% · ▼ 51 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 74% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 783%

School 83% · District 77% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 885%

School 85% · District 77% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 57% · ▼ 57 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 892%

School 92% · district not reported

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 2, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income67%Higher-income88%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income79%Higher-income84%6 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income77%Higher-income89%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income63%Higher-income86%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income79%Higher-income94%15 pp gap