Paula Hedbavny School, New York NY

Original Research by School Decision on Paula Hedbavny School

Paula Hedbavny School sits on West 219th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of upper Manhattan, serving children from kindergarten through eighth grade within New York City Geographic District 6. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and draws from a community that is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of white and Black students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding neighborhood. Enrollment is modest for a K-8 school in New York City. Data on English learner status and students with IEPs were not available in what we received.

The neighborhood itself is dense, walkable, and transit-connected in the way that most of upper Manhattan is. The MTA subway system reaches Inwood directly, and the everyday texture of the area is mixed residential and commercial, with significant pedestrian activity and a street life that supports getting around without a car. Publicly reported context shows that the Bronx side of the Harlem River, which borders Inwood, has seen meaningful housing growth in recent years, and the city's broader "City of Yes" zoning reform adopted in 2024 is designed to add housing across neighborhoods like this one. The local housing market shows home values modestly below the statewide median and above national norms, with rents rising year over year.

On state assessments, the picture at Hedbavny is uneven across grades and subjects, which is worth reading carefully rather than summarizing in a single phrase. In math, third grade shows the lowest proficiency of any tested grade, while performance climbs steadily through the upper grades, with seventh and eighth graders reaching noticeably stronger results. ELA follows a similar arc but with a sharper dip in sixth grade before recovering in seventh and eighth. The eighth-grade ELA result is genuinely strong. Science results split similarly: fifth-grade science is in the mid-range, while eighth-grade science is well above that. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index sits at the midpoint among the small set of schools in New York County for which comparison data was available, which is a reasonable summary but should not obscure the grade-level variation described above. The social studies data available is from a much earlier year and is not useful for current comparison.

One pattern worth flagging: participation rates in some tested grades, particularly eighth-grade math, are low enough that the reported proficiency figures for those cohorts should be interpreted with caution. A parent may want to ask the school directly about testing participation and what drives it.

District 6 has been through visible structural changes in recent years. Publicly reported information indicates that declining enrollment has led to school mergers and re-sitings, including Harbor Heights being merged and two other schools being co-located after leases expired. Charter school growth within the district is cited as a factor. At the same time, Bill Lynch was expanded into a K-8 school beginning in the 2024-25 year to create a progressive middle school option, so families now have an additional middle-grade pathway. The NYC Reads literacy overhaul, which mandated phonics-based curricula citywide, reached District 6 elementary schools starting with the 2023-24 rollout, meaning the approach to early reading instruction at Hedbavny has changed from prior years. The city's Gifted and Talented program has also been restructured, replacing the single entrance exam with a teacher-recommendation and lottery system and expanding access across all districts, which changes how families in District 6 access accelerated options.

No program offerings specific to Hedbavny were available in the data we received. A graduation rate does not apply here, as the school ends at eighth grade. Trend data across multiple years was not available, so it is not possible to say whether performance has been improving, declining, or holding steady. A parent who wants that picture should request it from the school or the district directly.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

1 course 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	22	73.0%

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 53% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 53% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 53% · ▼ 1 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 40% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 51% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 55% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 71 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 47%

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 54%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 42% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 43% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 49% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 41% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 45% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 45 pts above state median · ▲ 70 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 549%

School 49% · district not reported

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

Grade 876%

School 76% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 6, 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 3Lower-income30%Higher-income71%41 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income57%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income100%70 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income86%37 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income79%Higher-income89%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income10%Higher-income57%47 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income71%42 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income82%47 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income78%18 pp gap