Ps 173 Fresh Meadows, Flushing NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ps 173 Fresh Meadows

PS 173 Fresh Meadows sits on 67th Avenue in the Fresh Meadows section of Queens, part of NYC Geographic District 26. It serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and draws from one of the more academically competitive corners of the New York City public school system. The enrollment is substantial for an elementary school, spread fairly evenly across grade levels from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The school's state assessment results, drawn from the New York State Testing Program, are genuinely strong. Math proficiency across the tested grades runs well above what most New York City families encounter, with third graders performing at particularly high levels and fourth and fifth graders not far behind. ELA results are solid though somewhat lower than math, as is common across District 26 schools, with third and fifth grade outperforming fourth grade. Fifth-grade science results are in a similar range to ELA. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts across Queens County, which is a meaningful result given how competitive that county comparison set is. Trend data was not available, so direction of change over time cannot be described.

The student body is majority Asian, with a substantial share of white students and a smaller Hispanic population. A notable portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a reminder that the school serves families across a range of economic circumstances, even in a neighborhood with high housing costs. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not reported in the available records; parents with children who need those services may want to ask the school directly about program depth and caseloads.

The neighborhood itself is Fresh Meadows rather than downtown Flushing, though the school shares its district with the Flushing commercial core. Fresh Meadows is a quieter residential area, more in the mold of Flushing's Broadway-Flushing and Murray Hill sub-neighborhoods than its dense downtown. The broader Flushing area is one of Queens' fastest-growing, with a major waterfront mixed-use district approved along Flushing Creek and ongoing high-rise development reshaping the skyline. Housing in the immediate zip code is priced well above both the state and national medians, and it has continued to appreciate. Rents have softened slightly year over year. Families considering this school zone should expect a competitive housing market.

At the district level, two curriculum changes affect every elementary family at PS 173 directly. The NYC Reads mandate replaced school-selected reading materials with one of three phonics-based, science-of-reading curricula and requires daily phonics instruction, ending the balanced-literacy approach that many District 26 schools previously used. The change is now fully in effect. NYC Solves, a parallel math curriculum mandate, is primarily aimed at middle and high school grades and was piloted in District 26 among the first cohort of districts; its immediate effect on PS 173's elementary grades is less direct, but it shapes what students will encounter when they move on. The gifted-and-talented program has also been restructured citywide, shifting from a test-based admissions process for four-year-olds to a teacher-recommendation and lottery system, with new kindergarten seats added and a third-grade entry point created. Families interested in accelerated programming will want to learn how that revised process works in District 26 specifically.

District 26 has faced real overcrowding pressure in northeast Queens, and the district has been adding seats at several schools to address it. Whether that expansion has fully relieved enrollment pressure at PS 173 is not clear from the available data, and parents may want to ask the school directly about class sizes.

A graduation rate is not applicable here; PS 173 does not serve high school grades. The school ends at fifth grade, so the pathway from here runs through District 26's middle schools, and the choices families make at that transition point are separate from anything this school controls.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 385%

School 85% · District 83% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 82% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 77% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 76% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 74% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 77% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 66% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 599%

School 99% · district not reported

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

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #26, 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-income69%Higher-income87%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income59%Higher-income80%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income61%Higher-income92%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income81%Higher-income95%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income73%Higher-income81%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income75%Higher-income86%11 pp gap