The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Social studies. The lowest is 15% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Ps 9 Ryer Avenue Elementary School
PS 9 Ryer Avenue Elementary sits on East 183rd Street in the Fordham section of the Bronx, serving children from pre-K through fifth grade within NYC Geographic District 10. The school's enrollment is moderate in size for a New York City elementary, and its student body is almost entirely Hispanic, with a smaller share of Black students and very few students from other groups. Nearly every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the highest-poverty schools by that measure. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in this profile.
On the New York State Testing Program, the picture is mixed and grade-dependent. In third and fourth grades, both math and ELA proficiency are reasonably solid. Fourth grade in particular stands out, with more than half of students reaching the proficient threshold in math and roughly three-fifths doing so in ELA. Third grade follows a similar pattern. Fifth grade is a different story: math proficiency drops well below the third-grade level, ELA proficiency falls to roughly a third of students, and science proficiency in fifth grade is quite low, with only a small fraction of students scoring at the proficient level. A parent would be reasonable to ask the school directly about what accounts for that fifth-grade dip and what supports are in place as students move toward middle school. Trend data across years was not available, so it is not possible from this profile to say whether results are improving, declining, or holding steady.
Within the comparison set of schools for which data was compiled relative to districts in Bronx County, PS 9's overall proficiency index sits at the top of the range, above the midpoint and toward the upper end among the schools in that set. That positioning is worth holding alongside the fifth-grade and science numbers, which are the soft spots in an otherwise above-median picture.
The school's parent district, District 10, made a meaningful change to reading instruction starting in the 2024-25 school year as part of the citywide NYC Reads mandate. The prior approach, where schools chose their own reading programs, was replaced with one of three approved phonics-based curricula. For families with children in the early grades, this is a real shift in how literacy is taught, and it is worth asking the school which curriculum was adopted and how the transition has gone. On the secondary pipeline side, the city reinstated academic screening for selective high school admissions, grouping students by seventh-grade academic performance, and expanded middle school choice so that fifth graders can now apply citywide rather than only within their district. For a PS 9 family, this means the transition out of elementary school opens onto a wider but more competitive landscape than it did a few years ago.
The neighborhood around Fordham is dense and walkable, with groceries, transit, and the Fordham Plaza hub close by. Publicly reported sources describe this part of the Bronx as served by multiple subway lines and bus routes, which makes the school reasonably accessible for families across the area. The local housing market has seen year-over-year price and rent appreciation that is meaningfully higher than the national average, though home values in the immediate zip code remain below the statewide benchmark. The Bronx more broadly is in an active development phase, with a large volume of new affordable housing projects underway or recently announced, particularly in the Fordham, Melrose, and Concourse corridors near this school.
What this profile does not include: specific program offerings at PS 9, staffing details, attendance or chronic absenteeism data, and any school-specific context on extracurriculars or enrichment. Those gaps are worth filling directly with the school before drawing firm conclusions.
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