The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in Math. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on City Knoll Middle School
City Knoll Middle School sits on West 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, embedded in one of the densest and most transit-connected neighborhoods in the country. The school serves grades six through eight as a regular public school within New York City Geographic District 2, and its enrollment is small for a middle school. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up the next largest group and smaller shares of white and Asian students. An overwhelming majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the higher-poverty schools by that measure among middle schools citywide. Data on English learner and IEP rates were not available in what we reviewed.
The academic picture is one a parent needs to sit with carefully. On the New York State Testing Program, proficiency rates across all tested grades and subjects are low, and the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in New York County. In sixth-grade ELA, only a small fraction of tested students reached the proficient level; seventh-grade ELA was somewhat higher but still well below what most parents would consider a benchmark for grade-level readiness. Math results follow a similar pattern: sixth- and seventh-grade proficiency rates are modest, and eighth-grade math results were suppressed entirely because so few students were tested in that grade, which itself raises a question worth asking the school directly. Eighth-grade science proficiency was also low. Participation rates varied noticeably by grade and subject, with sixth-grade ELA participation well below the other grades, which can affect how fully these scores represent the whole student body. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether scores are improving, declining, or holding steady.
There are no program-specific details in the data we have. Course access, staffing ratios, attendance, and discipline information were all absent from the available record. A parent considering this school would benefit from asking the school directly about academic intervention programs, advisory or counseling structures, and how the school supports students who are behind grade level in reading and math, given what the state assessments show.
The neighborhood itself is a genuine asset in the life-of-the-school sense. The West 50s offers subway access on multiple lines, dense street life, and proximity to the cultural and civic institutions that make Manhattan distinctive. The school building is part of the block fabric rather than a separated campus, which is characteristic of how New York public schools are sited generally.
Housing near the school reflects one of the most expensive markets in the country. Home values in the surrounding zip code are well above both the state and national midpoints, and rents have risen year over year. Families who are already in the neighborhood are likely renting at significant cost; those considering a move specifically for this school should weigh the housing market carefully alongside the academic data.
The broader district context includes ongoing change around Gifted and Talented admissions citywide. The city has moved away from standardized testing for kindergarten G&T placement toward teacher nominations and a lottery, and publicly reported accounts indicate that the incoming mayoral administration was signaling further potential changes as of late 2025. This primarily affects families at the elementary level, but the instability in how students are tracked early shapes who arrives at middle school and under what circumstances.
A graduation rate does not apply here because City Knoll serves only middle grades.
The honest summary is that City Knoll's tested academic outcomes are a concern worth exploring in depth. For a family whose child needs strong academic scaffolding and whose options are constrained by neighborhood or cost, the questions to ask are about what specific supports the school provides and how it tracks student progress year to year. The state assessment data alone does not tell the whole story of what happens inside a school, but it is a signal that warrants direct conversation with the school's leadership before enrolling.
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