Sleepy Hollow Middle School, North Tarrytown NY

Original Research by School Decision on Sleepy Hollow Middle School

Sleepy Hollow Middle School serves sixth through eighth grade in the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns, sitting within the village of Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson River in Westchester County. The school draws students from a community with a genuinely distinctive character: a working-class industrial past built around a waterfront auto plant, a Latino-majority residential population, and a downtown corridor that is actively rebuilding itself around a large mixed-use redevelopment on the old factory site.

The student body is majority Hispanic, with white students making up a smaller but meaningful share and smaller numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school among those serving a substantially economically diverse population. Data on English learner rates and special education rates were not available in what was provided.

On the New York State assessments, proficiency in both math and ELA runs in the low-to-mid fifties at sixth grade and falls into the low-to-mid forties by eighth grade. That pattern across three grade levels in both subjects is worth a parent's attention. Placed against districts in Westchester County, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. New York's grade-level assessments are genuinely competitive, and Westchester County as a whole trends high, so the context matters, but the gap is real. State science testing data for eighth grade was not available in the current year's results. Social studies assessment data available in the payload is from a much earlier school year and is not a useful current indicator. Trend data across years was not available, so it is not possible to say from this material whether performance is improving, flat, or declining, which is something a parent may want to ask the school directly.

A graduation rate does not apply here because the school serves only middle grades.

The village itself is in a period of genuine physical transformation. Edge-on-Hudson, a large transit-oriented redevelopment of the former General Motors waterfront site, has been adding housing across a wide price range, including affordable and workforce units, along with retail and a grocery store. Beekman Avenue, the main commercial street running from Broadway down to the river, offers dining and a farmers market. The Philipse Manor Metro-North station on the Hudson Line connects the village to Grand Central, and the larger Tarrytown station is nearby. The waterfront Kingsland Point Park and the Rockefeller State Park Preserve add outdoor options. The village has publicly stated a goal of preserving economic and ethnic diversity as this growth continues.

Housing in this part of Westchester is expensive by most national measures, running well above the state median and far above the national median. Rents are also high, and the rent burden relative to typical incomes is steep. Westchester County's for-sale inventory has been constrained, with homes moving relatively quickly. Any family relocating here should factor in a real cost of housing that is among the higher ranges in the region.

On the district side, voters approved a capital bond project in late 2023 to fund major facilities upgrades, including building additions at the elementary schools. This is a multi-year construction program. Publicly reported estimates tied that bond to incremental property tax increases that would accumulate meaningfully by the end of the decade, layered on top of annual operating budget increases that have run in the low-to-mid single digits in recent years. A family buying into the district should treat rising tax costs as a planned expense, not an uncertainty.

Data on course offerings, extracurricular programs, staffing levels, attendance, and discipline were not available for this school, which limits what can be said about day-to-day environment and academic pathway breadth at the middle level.

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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
Science	188	71.0%
Math	22	100.0%

Math

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 47%

even with state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Science

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 869%

School 69% · district not reported

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

This schoolUNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE TARRYTOWNS, 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-income30%Higher-income80%49 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income72%46 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income72%47 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income79%45 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income73%39 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income34%Higher-income67%33 pp gap