School of Performing Arts, Bronx NY

Original Research by School Decision on School of Performing Arts

School of Performing Arts is a middle school serving grades six through eight in the Bronx, located in a neighborhood that is part of the borough's dense urban fabric. The school enrolls a small student body and serves a predominantly low-income community, with the vast majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student population is primarily Hispanic and Black.

The school's test results in math and English language arts show proficiency rates that are below the midpoint for middle schools in Bronx County. In math, sixth graders show the lowest proficiency, while seventh and eighth graders perform somewhat higher, though still modestly. English language arts proficiency is low across all three grades, with particularly weak results in grade six. Eighth-grade science proficiency is substantially lower. These performance levels are consistent with the school's overall proficiency position relative to other county middle schools, placing it in the bottom quartile. A parent may want to look into these numbers further with the school to understand what supports and strategies are in place to help students improve, particularly in English language arts where the gap is pronounced.

As a school with a performing arts focus, the school's distinctive identity centers on arts instruction; however, the data provided does not include information about the breadth of arts programming, how the arts are integrated into general academics, or the structure of performance opportunities and extracurriculars. Parents interested in this school would benefit from visiting and speaking directly with staff about how the performing arts mission operates day to day and what academic supports exist alongside arts instruction.

The Bronx itself is experiencing substantial residential growth, with new affordable housing developments in planning or construction across multiple neighborhoods. The area is walkable, with transit hubs anchoring neighborhood centers, and parkland and civic institutions distributed throughout rather than concentrated in a single downtown. Housing values in the school's zip code are above the state benchmark, and rents have been rising. The school sits within NYC Geographic District 12, which has recently adopted district-wide reading and math curricula as part of citywide mandates, shifting elementary reading instruction to a phonics-based model starting in 2023 and elementary math instruction to Illustrative Mathematics beginning fall 2026. These changes will affect how students are taught once they enter the high school grades and come through the district's feeder pipeline.

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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	8	88.0%

Math

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 25% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 754%

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

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

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 38% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 31% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 36% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 36% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 28% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 824%

School 24% · district not reported

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12, 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 5Lower-income28%Higher-income20%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income60%7 pp gap