Riverside School for Makers and Artists (the), New York NY

Original Research by School Decision on Riverside School for Makers and Artists (the)

The Riverside School for Makers and Artists sits on West 61st Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, part of New York City Geographic District 3. It runs from pre-K through eighth grade and is a regular public school, not a charter. The name signals its identity directly: this is a school organized around making and the arts as modes of learning, not as electives appended to a conventional program.

The school serves a sizable student body for a pre-K through 8 building. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up a substantial share and white and Asian students present in smaller proportions. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this among the higher-need schools in the city. IEP and English learner rates were not available in the data.

State test results from the most recent year tell a clear story, and parents should look at them directly. Across grades three through seven in both math and ELA, proficiency rates on the New York State Testing Program are low, generally in the range of roughly one in five students or fewer reaching the proficient threshold, with fifth-grade ELA and math showing some variation across that band. The eighth-grade math and science results showed no tested students, which the data attributes to no reported tested count for that cohort rather than a zero proficiency rate with a full cohort; a parent would want to ask the school directly what accounts for that gap. Science proficiency at the fifth-grade level was also modest. These numbers sit in the bottom quartile among the districts within New York County on the overall proficiency index used for that comparison set. A parent weighing traditional academic benchmarks should go into this with clear eyes, and it would be reasonable to ask the school about its academic supports, intervention programs, and how it tracks student growth alongside these scores. Trend data was not available in the records provided.

Participation rates in testing were also notably incomplete in some grades, running well below full participation in several cohorts, which can complicate how proficiency figures should be read. This is worth asking the school about.

The broader District 3 context matters for families thinking ahead to middle school. The district moved to a lottery for middle school admissions across its Upper West Side schools, replacing academic screens, and a standing diversity plan reserves a portion of seats at each middle school for lower-income and lower-performing students. More recently, proposals to close or relocate several District 3 schools, including middle school programs, were advanced and then withdrawn in early 2026 after significant community opposition. That episode raised questions about planning stability in the district that families would be right to follow closely.

The neighborhood itself is one of the most walkable and transit-connected parts of the city. The school is steps from the Columbus Circle subway hub and within the dense, mixed residential and commercial fabric of the Upper West Side and Lincoln Square. Housing near the school reflects one of the city's most expensive zip codes, with home values and rents well above both state and national benchmarks; rents have continued to rise. For renters and buyers considering the area around the school, the housing market is significantly above the New York State midpoint.

For a family drawn to a school where art-making and hands-on creation are structurally embedded in the experience, and who are less focused on test score performance as the primary measure of fit, this school offers a distinctive environment. For a family prioritizing high standardized-test proficiency, the current data presents a real gap to understand and follow up on.

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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	28	14.0%
Science	26	23.0%

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 73% · ▼ 53 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 71% · ▼ 45 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 65% · ▼ 53 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

Grade 622%

School 22% · District 61% · ▼ 39 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 70% · ▼ 53 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 50% · ▼ 50 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 37%

School 7% · District 71% · ▼ 63 pts below district

▼ 45 pts below state median · ▼ 49 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 70% · ▼ 49 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 43 pts below county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 73% · ▼ 42 pts below district

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

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 66% · ▼ 57 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 70% · ▼ 51 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 68% · ▼ 50 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 60% · ▼ 38 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 39% · ▼ 39 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 581%

School 81% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 874%

School 74% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 3, 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 4Lower-income9%Higher-income57%48 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income19%Higher-income20%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income15%Higher-income57%42 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income13%Higher-income40%28 pp gap