Jhs 190 Russell Sage, Forest Hills NY

Original Research by School Decision on Jhs 190 Russell Sage

JHS 190 Russell Sage sits on Austin Street in Forest Hills, a Queens neighborhood where tree-lined residential blocks back up against a busy commercial corridor and some of the borough's more expensive housing stock. The school serves grades six through eight, is a regular public school, and falls under New York City Geographic District 28.

The school's state assessment results, reported on the New York State Testing Program, show a genuinely strong academic picture for sixth and eighth graders in both math and English language arts, with proficiency rates well above what many middle schools across the city achieve. Seventh grade results are somewhat lower in both subjects, though still on the right side of the midpoint by a meaningful margin. Eighth-grade math and science results are suppressed in the data, apparently because only a single student sat for those exams, which almost certainly reflects how the school structures its math course sequence rather than a performance problem. Many middle schools accelerate strong eighth graders into high-school-level algebra or geometry courses that carry different state exams, so the absence of a reportable eighth-grade math proficiency figure is likely a structural feature of the program rather than a gap a parent should read as alarming. A parent who wants to understand exactly how the school places and sequences eighth graders in math would be well served asking the school directly.

Placed against other districts in Queens County, Russell Sage's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint of the comparison group. That is a meaningful position in a borough where the spread between schools is wide.

The school's enrollment is large for a middle school, drawing students across all three grade levels. The student body is genuinely diverse: Hispanic and Asian students each make up roughly the largest shares, followed by white students, then Black students, with smaller multiracial and other groups. Roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which means the school serves a broad economic cross-section even within a neighborhood as relatively affluent as Forest Hills. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the source material.

On the district side, families should know that NYC Reads, the citywide science-of-reading literacy overhaul, is being extended to middle schools by fall 2027, so Russell Sage's ELA instruction will be affected by that mandate in the coming years. District 28 also has access to Gifted and Talented programming that has been expanded and made more widely available in recent years. And Queens High School for the Sciences, which reserves seats for students from Districts 27, 28, and 29, is publicly reported to be relocating to a new, larger building in Jamaica for the 2026-27 school year, giving District 28 eighth graders a better-resourced selective high school option to aim for.

The Forest Hills neighborhood itself is highly walkable, served by the E, F, M, and R subway lines at the 71st Avenue station and an LIRR stop a short walk from the school. Austin Street, where the building sits, is a dense pedestrian corridor of shops and restaurants. Housing costs in the surrounding zip code are above the New York State benchmark, and rents have been rising at a notably fast pace year over year. The area is seeing active residential construction, including new luxury condominiums, affordable housing conversions, and several larger pipeline projects, so the neighborhood context for incoming families is one of gradual densification rather than stability.

A graduation rate does not apply here because Russell Sage is a middle school.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

3 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
Math	287	66.0%
Social Studies	245	71.0%
Science	240	70.0%

Math

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 55% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 59%

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

English language arts

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 56% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 55% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 56% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #28, 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 6Lower-income56%Higher-income92%36 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income78%34 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income48%Higher-income83%34 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income92%51 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income47%Higher-income78%31 pp gap