Seed Harlem, New York NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Seed Harlem

SEED HARLEM serves middle grades, from sixth through eighth, in Upper Manhattan with a small enrollment. The school sits in a neighborhood where the overwhelming majority of students come from families experiencing economic hardship: nearly all qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is evenly split between Black and Hispanic students, with a handful of other races represented.

State testing data from the most recent year shows academic proficiency that falls well below the midpoint among schools in New York County. In English language arts, proficiency rates are low across the grade span: around a third of sixth graders reached proficiency, but seventh-grade proficiency dropped sharply to less than a fifth, and eighth-grade proficiency sat at less than a third. Math proficiency is significantly weaker. In sixth grade, one in five students met the state standard. In seventh grade, fewer than one in twenty reached proficiency. No eighth-grade math proficiency data is available from the testing record. Science proficiency for eighth grade also shows no reported test participation. These gaps in eighth-grade testing warrant direct conversation with the school: they may reflect enrollment timing, student transition patterns, or assessment participation circumstances that the school can explain.

The school's enrollment is quite small, with roughly a dozen students in sixth grade, about three times that number in seventh, and a notably larger eighth-grade cohort. One student is listed as ungraded. The overall enrollment is small relative to a typical middle school.

SEED HARLEM is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet program, and is part of New York City Geographic District 5, which covers much of Upper Manhattan. The district has implemented the NYC Reads literacy mandate for elementary schools and the NYC Solves math standardization for middle schools, shifting both reading and math instruction toward specified curricula citywide. Middle school admissions in District 5 now allow families to apply to schools across the city while retaining in-district preference, and superintendents can use academic screens at their discretion. These policy shifts affect the landscape in which SEED HARLEM operates.

The neighborhood around the school sits in Upper Manhattan, in a dense, mixed-use cityscape typical of New York. The area is walkable, transit-served, and integrated with residential and commercial uses. Housing values in the zip code are substantially higher than state or national benchmarks, though rent has remained relatively flat while property values have declined slightly. The city's ongoing housing growth, especially driven by projects across the Bronx and shifts in development patterns, creates a backdrop of neighborhood change. Major employers in the city span finance, technology, professional services, and tourism; tech hiring has expanded rapidly.

The school itself offers limited visible program information in accessible data. Staff counts, discipline records, attendance data, and detailed course offerings are not available in the materials reviewed. A parent or guardian considering this school would want to ask directly about teaching approaches, course breadth, extracurricular options, and support for students performing below grade level, especially given the proficiency results. Conversation with the school about the missing eighth-grade assessment data and about how the school approaches literacy and math instruction under the new district mandates would be valuable groundwork before enrollment.

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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	30	3.0%
Science	25	8.0%

Math

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 38% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 75%

School 5% · District 43% · ▼ 38 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 53 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 32% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 42% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 46% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 42% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 27% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 5, 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

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income8%Higher-income0%8 pp gap