Is 219 New Venture School, Bronx NY

Original Research by School Decision on Is 219 New Venture School

IS 219 New Venture School serves sixth through eighth grade in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx, just north of the Harlem River. The school is small, with roughly equal numbers of students across each grade. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment is primarily Hispanic with a substantial share of Black students. The school sits within New York City's highly centralized public system; it is a regular public school within Geographic District 9, which covers multiple Bronx neighborhoods and operates under city-level curriculum mandates.

State test results for 2024-25 show proficiency rates that are below the midpoint among the county's districts across the subjects tested. In mathematics, sixth and seventh graders are reaching proficiency at roughly one-third the rate, while eighth graders perform slightly higher. English language arts proficiency is also in the one-third range across all three grades. Science, assessed only in eighth grade, shows proficiency near one-third as well. These numbers reflect the academic challenges many students at the school face; a parent should speak directly with the school about how it supports students who enter below grade level and what interventions are in place.

The school operates under two major curriculum mandates that have rolled out across New York City. All middle schools in the district, including this one, must now use the EL Education math curriculum as part of the NYC Solves initiative. In ELA, middle schools are required to use one of two approved curricula: EL Education or Wit and Wisdom. These are longstanding, research-informed programs, but they represent a shift away from the flexibility that individual schools once had to choose their own approach. If a family has experience with these specific curricula or strong preferences about how reading and math are taught, that context is worth exploring with the school.

Enrollment in the district overall has declined over the past several years, with the sharpest drops at the elementary and middle school levels, though enrollment stabilized in the most recent period. This kind of decline can affect program capacity and staffing, though the data does not show whether IS 219 specifically experienced larger or smaller shifts than the district average.

The Mott Haven area where the school is located is part of the South Bronx's ongoing transformation. The Bronx as a whole is in a strong growth phase, with major new affordable housing developments underway, including projects near the Harlem River waterfront. Commercial corridors like White Plains Road are lined with bakeries, markets, and restaurants serving the neighborhood. The neighborhood is walkable and well-served by transit: multiple subway lines pass through, and the planned Penn Access expansion will add new Metro-North stations. Home values in the Bronx have risen in recent years, though they remain lower than citywide averages; rental costs have also increased.

Data on special education enrollment, English learner status, chronic absenteeism, and attendance were not available in the records reviewed. A parent considering this school would want to ask the school directly about the services available for students with IEPs, how it supports English learners, and what its current attendance patterns look like.

See more original research from School Decision →

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	10	80.0%

Math

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 28% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 42% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 45% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 32% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 39% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 41% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 38% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 826%

School 26% · district not reported

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 9, 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.