Is 117 Joseph H Wade, Bronx NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Is 117 Joseph H Wade

IS 117 Joseph H Wade is a regular middle school in the South Bronx serving grades six through eight. It draws from a densely urban neighborhood where apartment buildings, commercial corridors, and transit infrastructure form the everyday environment. The school sits within Geographic District 9, a part of the New York City public school system that operates under citywide curriculum mandates for reading and math instruction.

The enrollment is small for a middle school, spread nearly evenly across the three grades. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with a substantial Black enrollment and very few white or Asian students. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, marking this as a school serving families with very low household incomes. A parent may want to reach out directly to the school about special education and English learner enrollment data, which were not available.

Academic proficiency on state assessments is below midpoint among Bronx County districts. In sixth grade, roughly a fifth of students tested achieved proficiency in math, with slightly higher performance in English language arts. Seventh-grade results show a similar pattern: fewer than one in five students met proficiency in math, with roughly a quarter proficient in ELA. Eighth-grade ELA proficiency rises notably higher, to around two in five students, which is the strongest result the school reported. Eighth-grade math proficiency in science both sit near or below one in five students. The school's eighth-grade science participation rate fell to about two in three, which may reflect student absences on testing days or other scheduling factors; a parent may want to ask the school about this directly.

The school operates under the NYC Reads and NYC Solves mandates, meaning reading instruction follows one of three approved phonics-based curriculums and middle-school math uses EL Education. These city-level changes took effect as the school was managing an enrollment decline across District 9, though enrollment has stabilized in recent school years. The immediate neighborhood has been experiencing substantial new housing development, with major affordable housing projects adding stock along the waterfront and in adjacent neighborhoods, though the impact on school enrollment remains to be seen.

A parent should interpret the proficiency data as marking where current students stand and understanding what academic support looks like at the school. The numbers suggest that many sixth and seventh graders are building toward proficiency, with eighth-grade ELA results indicating progress in at least one subject by the time students leave. A conversation with school staff about intervention structures, remediation pathways, and what classes look like in practice will ground any enrollment decision.

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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	101	29.0%
Science	28	39.0%

Math

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 28% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 42% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 45% · ▼ 45 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 32% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 726%

School 26% · District 39% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 41%

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

Science

Grade 820%

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

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

Social studies

Grade 825%

School 25% · district not reported

▼ 54 pts below state median · ▼ 3 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.