Colibri Community School (the), Bronx NY

Original Research by School Decision on Colibri Community School (the)

Colibri Community School serves grades pre-K through five in the South Bronx, in a neighborhood of dense apartment blocks and commercial corridors where housing values hover near the median for the region and rental costs are typical of the outer boroughs. The school is small, with an enrollment distributed across its seven grade bands from pre-K through fifth grade.

The student body is overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged. A very high share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The population is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black minority and very few white or Asian students represented.

Reading and math proficiency on state assessments reveals a school in significant academic difficulty. Third-grade math performance stands out as the highest point in the data, but even there proficiency hovers well below half the student body. Fourth-grade math and English language arts results are severely depressed, with proficiency in single digits. Fifth-grade results show modest recovery in language arts but remain weak in math and drop further in science, where only a small fraction of students scored at proficient levels. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among districts in Bronx County. These numbers reflect real gaps in foundational skills that would require urgent attention from a parent or family considering enrollment or from the school itself thinking about intervention.

The school sits within New York City Geographic District 12, which serves the South and Central Bronx. The district is in the midst of significant curriculum change. Beginning in fall 2023, reading instruction shifted district-wide to the Into Reading program, a phonics-based curriculum mandated by the city. Mathematics instruction is undergoing parallel transformation: the district's middle and high schools began using Illustrative Mathematics in 2024-2025, and starting fall 2026, all elementary schools in the district, including this one, must adopt Illustrative Mathematics for the first time. These are permanent, district-level shifts that affect how teachers instruct and what children learn each day.

The Bronx itself is experiencing significant growth, particularly in affordable housing development. The neighborhood where this school sits is part of a borough actively building new units and attracting investment. The school's location on East 179th Street places it in a walkable area with access to subway lines and bus service, in a borough whose infrastructure includes parks, libraries, and transit anchors distributed across multiple neighborhood centers.

A parent evaluating this school would likely want to discuss with administrators what supports and interventions are in place to address the proficiency gaps evident in the state testing data, and how the school is implementing the new reading and math curricula adopted by the district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 368%

School 68% · District 44% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 41% · ▼ 30 pts below district

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

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 36% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 36% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 38% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 43% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 23% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 16 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.