The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in English language arts. The lowest is 9% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Academy of Medical Technology - a College Board School
The Academy of Medical Technology is a public middle and high school in Far Rockaway, Queens, serving grades six through twelve. It sits in a densely populated, diverse coastal neighborhood that is both geographically isolated from the rest of the city and actively being redeveloped after decades of disinvestment. The school's academic performance shows clear challenges that warrant a careful look before enrollment.
Far Rockaway itself is separated from the rest of Queens by Jamaica Bay and reachable only by causeway, bridge, or subway. This gives it a distinct character: a mix of single-family homes, low- and mid-rise apartment buildings, public housing, and beachfront properties. The area is very walkable around its commercial core at Mott Avenue, where the A train terminates and the LIRR Far Rockaway station sits, and civic life centers there rather than on isolated campuses. The neighborhood is undergoing substantial redevelopment, with major affordable housing projects like Rockaway Village and Edgemere Commons reshaping the peninsula after years of disinvestment. St. John's Episcopal Hospital is the dominant employer, and the boardwalk along the Atlantic is a defining civic anchor. Housing values in the zipcode are moderately above the state average and have been appreciating.
The school's student body reflects the neighborhood. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is roughly evenly split between Hispanic and Black students, with a small number of Asian and white students. The school is small for the grade band, with about six hundred students across seven grade levels.
The pressing concern is state test performance. In mathematics, only about one in five sixth graders reached proficiency, and that rate dropped sharply in seventh and eighth grades, falling to about one in twenty eighth graders. In English language arts, sixth grade showed about one in four proficient, but seventh grade fell to about one in eight. Eighth grade ELA recovered slightly to about one in four, suggesting some volatility in performance across grade levels. Science proficiency in eighth grade stood at about one in eleven. Across all tested areas, the school's overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile when compared to other schools in Queens County.
It is important to note that one data gap affects how you should interpret these results: the payload does not include the school's graduation rate or attendance data, so you cannot see what happens with students through high school completion or whether chronic absenteeism is a factor in the middle school results. A parent may want to look into those metrics directly with the school or the district.
The school's name signals a medical technology focus, but no program description or course listing appears in the available data, so the specifics of that pathway are not documented here. You might ask the school directly about what career or dual-credit pathways it offers in health sciences or how students engage with that mission.
District 27, which oversees this school, has implemented two citywide curriculum mandates that will shape instruction: NYC Reads, a phonics-based literacy approach required in all elementary schools, and NYC Solves, which mandates the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum in high schools and a pre-approved list for middle schools. These represent a shift toward more structured, evidence-based approaches to reading and math. The district has also experienced substantial enrollment decline and excess capacity, which may affect school utilization decisions over time.
The question for a family is whether the academic support environment here matches what their child needs. The test results point to students working well below proficiency benchmarks in the early and middle years, which suggests this is a school where many students enter with or develop significant academic gaps. If your child thrives in a school with intensive intervention, targeted skill-building, and close tracking, and if the medical technology program aligns with their interests, it may be worth investigating further. If you are seeking a school where the majority of the peer cohort is testing proficient or above, or where there is a track record of strong academic outcomes across the grade band, the data here does not support that picture.
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