Lexington Academy (the), New York NY

Original Research by School Decision on Lexington Academy (the)

Lexington Academy sits on East 104th Street in East Harlem, part of New York City Geographic District 4. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and its enrollment is moderate in size for that span of grades. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up the next largest group. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school among the highest-need settings in a city that already contains many such schools. Data on English learner and special education rates were not available in the data provided.

The neighborhood itself is dense, walkable, and transit-connected in the way most of Manhattan is. Mixed-use buildings, active sidewalks, and subway access are the everyday texture. Housing costs here track against a citywide market that is substantially above both state and national benchmarks, with rents rising in the local zip code while home values have edged slightly downward over the past year. East Harlem sits within a part of the city that has seen meaningful housing development, driven by available land and rezonings, and the broader "City of Yes" zoning reform passed in 2024 is expected to bring further infill over time.

On the New York State assessments, Lexington Academy's results are mixed and, taken together, land in the bottom quartile among districts in New York County. That said, the picture is not uniform across grades. Third-grade math and ELA proficiency rates are quite low. Rates pick up in fourth and fifth grades before dipping again in sixth, and seventh grade shows the school's strongest performance in both math and ELA, with roughly approaching half of students scoring at proficient or above. Eighth-grade ELA holds at a similar level, while eighth-grade math and science fall back to the range seen in the lower elementary grades. Science scores at both the tested fifth- and eighth-grade levels are in the same general range as the weaker math results. The variability across grade levels is real, and a parent would be reasonable to ask the school what accounts for the stronger seventh-grade showing relative to the grades around it.

Two curriculum changes are relevant here. Publicly reported information indicates that District 4 is in the second phase of the citywide NYC Reads literacy mandate, meaning Lexington Academy's elementary classrooms were required to adopt a phonics-based reading curriculum in the 2024-25 school year, replacing the balanced literacy approach previously common across the city. The effects of that shift will take time to show up clearly in assessment data. On the math side, District 4 middle schools are scheduled to adopt a standardized curriculum under NYC Solves in the 2026-27 school year, moving away from school-by-school variation toward a problem-based approach.

For families thinking about the path beyond eighth grade, the city has reinstated academic screening for selective middle and high schools, which bears watching for students approaching those transitions. A publicly reported note worth knowing: a nearby screened school in District 5 gives admissions priority to families living above 96th Street, which includes East Harlem. The city has also opened middle school applications citywide beginning fall 2025, giving District 4 families broader options than before, though zoned and in-district preferences still apply.

No graduation rate applies here, as the school does not serve high school grades. Program offerings data were not available. Civil rights data were not provided. The social studies assessment data in the system dates to a prior school year under a different school name and does not reflect current conditions, so it was not used.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 311%

School 11% · District 46% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median · ▼ 46 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 49% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 44% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 45% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 38% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 312%

School 12% · District 44% · ▼ 32 pts below district

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

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 52% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 52% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 46% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 50% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 48% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 37% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 586%

School 86% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 4, 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.