School 9-dr Martin Luther King Jr, Rochester NY

Original Research by School Decision on School 9-dr Martin Luther King Jr

School 9-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a pre-kindergarten through sixth grade public elementary school on Clinton Avenue North in Rochester, New York, part of the Rochester City School District. The school serves a substantial enrollment for its grade band, drawing almost entirely from a high-poverty population -- the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a sizable Black population and very small numbers of white and Asian students. Data on English learner and special education rates was not available in the materials reviewed.

State testing results from the New York State Testing Program are reported for grades three through six in English language arts, math, and fifth-grade science. The picture is one of very low proficiency across all tested grades and subjects. In math, the third and sixth grade results sit at a low level, while the fourth and fifth grade rates are lower still -- the fifth grade result, in particular, is in single digits. ELA results follow a similar pattern, with third and sixth grade coming in somewhat higher than fourth and fifth, though none of the grades reach even a fifth of students at the proficient level. Fifth-grade science results are also very low. Taken together, this school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Monroe County. These results are a real concern, and a parent would want to ask the school directly about what supports are in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level expectations and how progress is being tracked year to year. Multi-year trend data was not available in the materials, so it is not possible to say whether performance has been improving or declining.

Because the school serves only through sixth grade, there is no graduation rate, and that measure does not apply here.

The school sits within a district that has been through considerable upheaval. Rochester City School District carried out its most substantial structural overhaul in a very long time beginning in the 2024-25 school year, closing multiple schools, re-establishing a middle-school structure, and realigning grades districtwide. Families in closed schools entered a special lottery for reassignment. The end of federal COVID-relief funding drove a meaningful budget reduction and the elimination of a significant number of positions, on top of ongoing enrollment decline. Subsequent district projections pointed to a further large budget gap in coming years. These are active pressures on resources and staffing that a parent should ask about when visiting the school.

Rochester itself gives some grounding for where this school sits. The city is built along the Genesee River with a compact downtown of offices, government buildings, and cultural institutions, including an Olmsted-designed park system, a downtown public library with neighborhood branch locations, and a bus network centered on a downtown transit hub. The Clinton Avenue North address puts the school in the urban core. Healthcare and higher education anchor the regional economy, with major employers including the University of Rochester Medical Center and several large hospital systems. The city has pursued downtown revitalization after a long period of population decline -- publicly reported projects include adaptive reuse housing, state-funded affordable apartment developments, and the conversion of an elevated expressway corridor to street level -- but the surrounding residential neighborhoods vary considerably in character and condition.

Housing in the zip code around the school carries a typical home value well below both state and national benchmarks, and the broader Monroe County market has seen listing prices rise year over year, with homes moving relatively quickly. For families considering the area, the low local home values represent a meaningful affordability difference compared with the rest of New York State, though rent-to-income data for this specific zip code was not available.

Program details for the school were not included in the materials reviewed, so it is not possible to say what enrichment, language, arts, or intervention programs operate within the building. That would be a practical question to bring directly to the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 25% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 410%

School 10% · District 17% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 13% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 22% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 44%

School 4% · District 19% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 49 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 19% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 20% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 14% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 572%

School 72% · district not reported

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

This schoolROCHESTER CITY 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 3Lower-income14%Higher-income0%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income21%Higher-income14%6 pp gap