Ms 137 America's School of Heroes, Ozone Park NY

Original Research by School Decision on Ms 137 America's School of Heroes

MS 137 America's School of Heroes is a regular public middle school serving grades six through eight in Ozone Park, Queens, part of New York City Geographic District 27. The school enrolls a substantial population of students in a neighborhood marked by dense residential blocks, active commercial corridors along Liberty Avenue and 101st Avenue, and a notably multicultural student body and community.

The school's enrollment includes a high proportion of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a clear economic indicator of the families it serves. Racially and ethnically, the student population is predominantly Hispanic and Asian, with a smaller presence of American Indian, Black, White, and other students. The student body reflects the neighborhood's character as a longtime Italian and Irish enclave now joined by Indo-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Punjabi, Indian, Pakistani, and Latin American communities.

In state testing, the school's results show uneven performance by grade and subject. In English Language Arts, proficiency rates cluster around the midpoint: sixth graders are around the national mean, while seventh and eighth grade rates hold steady at similar levels. Mathematics proficiency is stronger in seventh grade, where roughly two-thirds of students meet proficiency standards, but sixth-grade math proficiency is notably lower at around half of students. The school did not report eighth-grade math or science data for the current year, which a parent may want to clarify directly with the school, as such gaps sometimes reflect small cohorts, test administration issues, or grade transitions. Overall proficiency across tested grades and subjects places the school in the bottom quartile among middle schools in Queens County, suggesting test results are below the median performance of schools serving the area.

Compared to that county-wide peer group, MS 137's aggregate test performance lags. The school does not report a graduation rate because it serves only middle school grades and thus falls outside that measure.

Ozone Park itself is a built-out historic neighborhood organized around its transit-served commercial corridors rather than a single downtown. The A train serves four elevated stations along Liberty Avenue, supplemented by numerous bus routes. Residential blocks are lined with prewar rowhouses and semi-detached homes, many with small front yards, giving the area a suburban feel despite its urban density. The neighborhood has experienced modest housing appreciation but remains substantially more affordable than citywide medians. Major economic change is underway through the Resorts World casino expansion at the adjacent Aqueduct site, which has become the city's largest hospitality employer.

District 27 has experienced substantial enrollment decline over the past several years and maintains excess middle school seating capacity across its buildings. More directly relevant to classroom instruction, the district is implementing two citywide curriculum mandates: NYC Reads, a phonics-based literacy approach for early elementary, and NYC Solves, a pre-approved list of middle school math curricula emphasizing conceptual understanding. These represent lasting shifts in how students in the district are taught to read and do mathematics, replacing prior approaches in which individual schools had more autonomy to select their own programs.

The school's address is in a residential block of Ozone Park near 98th Street, walkable from the commercial corridors and served by the A-train network, making it accessible by transit for families across the wider area. A parent evaluating this school would benefit from understanding that its test results are below the district median and asking the school directly about the gaps in reported eighth-grade data, as well as exploring what kind of support the school offers to students working toward proficiency in both reading and mathematics.

See more original research from School Decision →

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
Math	546	56.0%
Science	532	40.0%

Math

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 46% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 57% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 42% · ▼ 42 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 49% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 52% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 53% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 858%

School 58% · district not reported

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolNEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27, 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-income54%Higher-income67%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income55%Higher-income65%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income70%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income49%Higher-income48%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income64%Higher-income71%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income3%Higher-income4%1 pp gap