Pleasantville Middle School, Pleasantville NY

Original Research by School Decision on Pleasantville Middle School

Pleasantville Middle School serves grades five through eight in a compact Westchester County village about thirty miles north of Manhattan, where a revitalized downtown with restaurants, shops, and cultural anchors sits alongside suburban neighborhoods of older single-family homes. The school enrolls a moderate number of students, roughly three-quarters of whom are white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. About a sixth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the community's overall affluence.

The school's instructional results paint a clear picture across tested subjects. In mathematics, proficiency rates are steady, ranging across the middle grades to high levels in eighth grade. English language arts shows similarly solid performance across grades five through eight. Science proficiency in fifth grade is respectable, though eighth-grade science shows a steeper drop, with about half of tested eighth graders proficient; notably, the school reports a very low participation rate in that assessment. State testing data for grade four exists but shows no tested students, likely because this is a middle school that does not serve that grade. Social studies data dates to 2009 and is not current enough to reflect how the school is performing now. A parent should ask the school directly about its science curriculum and eighth-grade participation patterns, since the low participation rate could signal scheduling, opt-out, or other enrollment factors worth understanding.

When compared to other districts across Westchester County, the school's overall proficiency index—a mean of proficiency rates across tested subjects and grades—sits above the midpoint among county peers, suggesting solid collective academic standing. The school does not report a graduation rate, which is expected because it serves only middle grades.

The village itself is undergoing noticeable change. After voters rejected a capital bond in late 2024, the community approved a restructured facilities plan in May 2025 that will fund upgrades across all three district schools, including new STEAM instructional spaces, security improvements, athletic facilities with lights and turf, and infrastructure work. These projects are being funded in a way that aligns with expiring debt, so they will not add to the tax levy. The district has been consistent in passing budgets within New York's tax cap, and the current budget shows cap-compliant growth driven mainly by rising special education and benefit costs. For families considering a move, this means predictable property-tax increases year to year.

Housing in the area is expensive. Median home values are high, and rents are substantial; the housing market has cooled somewhat from its height, with listing inventory moderately elevated and a shift in the balance between buyers and sellers favoring purchasers. The village is well-served by the Metro-North Harlem Line commuter rail and has a walkable downtown culture centered on shops, restaurants, and the Jacob Burns Film Center. Pace University's Pleasantville campus and the school district are major employers.

The middle school sits on a campus area along Romer Avenue and Bedford Road, slightly apart from the downtown commercial core but connected to the district's broader institutional fabric. The school's enrollment is stable, and the environment appears to support mainstream academic pathways without specialized programs noted in available data. A parent evaluating this school should focus on how it fits the family's academic priorities and the student's learning style in grades five through eight, and should clarify directly with the school what its eighth-grade science expectations and participation patterns are, since that metric appears to warrant a closer look.

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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
Math	54	100.0%
Science	51	100.0%

Math

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 82% · ▼ 82 pts below district

▼ 58 pts below state median · ▼ 68 pts below county median

Grade 576%

School 76% · District 76%

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

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 76%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 778%

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

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

Grade 886%

School 86% · District 86%

▲ 49 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 77% · ▼ 77 pts below district

▼ 53 pts below state median · ▼ 62 pts below county median

Grade 581%

School 81% · District 81%

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

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 77% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 882%

School 82% · District 82%

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

Science

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 72%

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

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 597%

School 97% · district not reported

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

Grade 899%

School 99% · district not reported

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

This schoolPLEASANTVILLE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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 5Lower-income70%Higher-income82%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income80%55 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income83%50 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income88%46 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income80%53 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income82%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income85%65 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income54%Higher-income91%37 pp gap