Ps/ms 29 Melrose School, Bronx NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps/ms 29 Melrose School

PS/MS 29 Melrose School sits on Courtlandt Avenue in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx, serving children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade within New York City Geographic District 7. It is a traditional public school, not a charter, and its enrollment is substantial for a combined elementary-middle school. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic and Black, with nearly the entire enrollment qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Specific data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in what we reviewed.

The picture on state testing is uneven and worth reading carefully. On the New York State Testing Program, results vary considerably by grade and subject. In third-grade math and seventh-grade math, well over half of tested students reached proficiency, which stands out. Sixth- and eighth-grade math results are considerably weaker, with proficiency in those grades falling well below half. ELA follows a similar pattern of inconsistency: third and seventh grades show stronger results than fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth grades, where proficiency rates are lower. Science results at both the fifth- and eighth-grade checkpoints are low. Social studies results in the data are from a much earlier school year and are not useful for a current assessment. Parents evaluating the middle school years in particular may want to ask the school directly about supports for students as they move through grades six and eight, where tested outcomes are softer. Relative to other schools within Bronx County, the school's overall proficiency index sits just above the midpoint of the comparison set, which gives some useful context without obscuring the internal variation by grade.

No trend data across multiple years was available, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, declining, or holding steady. That is a gap worth raising with the school.

On the district front, a few changes matter concretely for families. Elementary classrooms in District 7 moved to phonics-based reading instruction under the NYC Reads mandate, which replaced the previously common balanced literacy approach. All K-5 classrooms now use one of three city-approved structured literacy programs. For families with children who have reading difficulties, District 7 is also home to the South Bronx Literacy Academy, a lottery-admission traditional public school built specifically for students with dyslexia and related reading disabilities, using Orton-Gillingham instruction in small classes with embedded therapists. On the gifted and talented side, the city replaced the standardized kindergarten test with a teacher-nomination and lottery system, and expanded third-grade programs so every district, including D7, has access to at least one.

The Melrose neighborhood and the broader Bronx context shape daily life here in ways families should know. Melrose is a dense, transit-connected South Bronx neighborhood, walkable and anchored by subway access. The Bronx more broadly is in an active development period, and Melrose specifically is part of that: the final phase of the La Central affordable housing development, a large multi-building project, is breaking ground nearby, adding to an already dense residential fabric. Housing values in the zip code sit below both the state and national midpoints, making this one of the more affordable entry points for homebuyers relative to greater New York, though rents have been climbing. The borough's dominant employer is health care, with Montefiore Medical Center publicly reported as the largest Bronx employer, alongside the city school system itself.

No data on course offerings, chronic absenteeism, or discipline were available for this school. A graduation rate is not applicable here because PS/MS 29 does not serve high school grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 52% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 43% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 39% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 29% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 38% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 46% · ▲ 6 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 39% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 47% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 29% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 754%

School 54% · District 36% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 39% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 22% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 26% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 549%

School 49% · district not reported

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · district not reported

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7, 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-income26%Higher-income17%9 pp gap