Ps/is 119 Glendale (the), Glendale NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps/is 119 Glendale (the)

PS/IS 119 is a combined elementary and middle school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Glendale, Queens, and draws its student body from a decidedly multilingual and economically mixed neighborhood. About three-quarters of its enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, while the student composition is substantially Asian, Latino, and white, with smaller representation of Black students and other groups. The neighborhood itself is a quiet, rooted community of rowhouses and two-family homes, with commercial life spread across avenues lined with bakeries and family-run stores rather than concentrated in a single downtown. It is not subway-served but has bus access and lies within a short walk of the M train at a neighboring station.

In the elementary grades, the school posts strong results. Third and fourth graders show solid proficiency in both math and English language arts, with most meeting or exceeding state standards. Fifth-grade math and ELA hold up well. Science performance at the fifth-grade level is respectable. The school's elementary section appears to maintain consistent, above-average classroom-by-classroom instruction across the core subjects during those years.

The middle grades tell a different story. Starting in sixth grade, proficiency in both math and ELA drops noticeably. By seventh grade, reading and writing proficiency continues to decline, and math holds but at a lower level. Eighth grade shows the steepest decline of all: math proficiency falls to roughly a quarter of tested students, and science proficiency at the eighth-grade level is similarly low. English language arts performance is considerably stronger in eighth grade than math or science, but still well below the elementary-grade baseline. The participation rate in eighth-grade math and science testing is also notably lower, suggesting that some eighth-grade students may not be taking those assessments.

This pattern appears positioned against its countywide peers in the upper range for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, which reflects the strength of the elementary section offsetting weaker middle-grade results. However, the acceleration of difficulty or shift in academic support between fifth and sixth grade warrants direct inquiry with the school. A parent may want to look into what instructional changes or transitions occur as students move into the middle grades, why eighth-grade math performance drops so sharply, and whether the lower participation rates in eighth-grade testing reflect curriculum sequencing, student enrollment patterns, or other factors.

The school sits in a district managing significant infrastructure strain. District 24 encompasses six neighborhoods including Glendale, Corona, Elmhurst, Ridgewood, Maspeth, and Middle Village, and it has been chronically overcrowded. New elementary schools are under construction to add capacity, and a new unzoned K-5 school with a project-based learning model will open shortly, offering a pedagogical alternative. The district is also projected to lose a substantial number of students over the coming decade, a demographic shift that affects school planning and resources unevenly across its buildings. Several schools in the district offer Spanish or Chinese dual-language programs that draw families from across the zone, an option that may appeal to multilingual households.

Housing in the Glendale zip code runs above the state median, with home values rising modestly year-over-year and rental costs similarly elevated. The neighborhood itself is walkable and leafy, with a strong sense of community continuity but also a visual patchiness along its main commercial corridor. If you are considering PS/IS 119, the elementary grades offer a stable, grade-level appropriate academic foundation; the transition into middle school marks a material and concerning shift in performance that the school should be prepared to discuss in detail.

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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
Science	117	98.0%
Math	112	100.0%

Math

Grade 388%

School 88% · District 53% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 480%

School 80% · District 50% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 585%

School 85% · District 53% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 42% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 50% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 36% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 383%

School 83% · District 46% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 483%

School 83% · District 45% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 581%

School 81% · District 50% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 43% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 47% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 873%

School 73% · District 49% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Science

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 40% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 34% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 881%

School 81% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #24, 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 3Lower-income81%Higher-income88%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income79%Higher-income92%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income77%Higher-income95%18 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income86%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income54%Higher-income77%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income72%Higher-income76%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income84%Higher-income96%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income76%Higher-income92%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income83%Higher-income91%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income56%Higher-income88%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income67%Higher-income88%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income23%8 pp gap