Pearls Hawthorne School, Yonkers NY

Original Research by School Decision on Pearls Hawthorne School

PEARLS Hawthorne is a Pre-K through 8 school in Yonkers serving a mixed community across the full grade span. The school's test results, based on the most recent state assessments, place it well above the typical performance level in Westchester County districts, and proficiency is consistent across both math and English language arts through the middle grades.

In math, proficiency runs high across all tested grades. Third through fifth graders show proficiency in the upper range, with fifth grade performing at the highest level. Sixth and seventh grades maintain similarly strong results. Eighth grade shows a slight dip but remains solid. English language arts follows a parallel pattern: third graders meet a high proficiency bar, and performance stays elevated through seventh grade. Eighth grade dips modestly but holds above most peers. Science data is sparse; only fifth and eighth grade assessments were administered, with fifth graders reaching a respectable proficiency rate and eighth graders underperforming, though the eighth grade science cohort was very small, so that result warrants careful interpretation.

Across the county's districts, PEARLS Hawthorne ranks in the top quartile for overall proficiency when math and language arts are averaged together. This is a genuine strength. The school's test-participation rates are generally strong, especially in the upper grades, though sixth grade showed lower participation, a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school.

The school enrollment is moderate for a Pre-K-8 building, with substantial diversity. The student body is roughly evenly split across Hispanic, white, and Asian students, with a smaller share of Black students and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Ungraded students make up a small portion of the roll. The school does not report counts for students with IEPs or English learners, so those demographic breakdowns are not available here.

Yonkers itself is a dense, mixed-use city on the Hudson River just north of New York City, organized around distinct neighborhoods rather than a single character. The downtown core near Getty Square has undergone sustained revitalization, with new residential towers, a waterfront esplanade, and the Carpet Mills Arts District of repurposed factory spaces. The city is also home to major employers including a hospital system, the school district itself, a rail-car manufacturer, and a new film studio complex. Housing is moderately expensive for the region, and the community has experienced active development and some displacement concerns as revitalization proceeds.

The Yonkers City School District has just completed its first new school building in decades with the opening of the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School in 2024, signaling investment in aging infrastructure. A second new school is planned. The district is also undergoing school closures: Museum School 25 closed at the end of the 2024-25 school year due to low enrollment and costly building repairs. The district operates under mayoral control rather than an elected school board, a governance structure that shapes parent voice in decision-making. These district-level moves affect the broader environment in which PEARLS Hawthorne sits, though PEARLS itself has not been targeted for closure.

PEARLS Hawthorne is positioned as a school with demonstrably strong test results, serving a diverse, moderately economically mixed community in an actively developing city. The building sits within a district navigating both new construction and consolidation. A parent considering this school would be looking at a place where academic proficiency is measurably above the county average, with consistent performance across grade levels and subjects, in a Pre-K-8 configuration that keeps younger and older students together.

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Academic performance

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

Advanced Placement & IB

1 subject offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Other

World History

1 tested · HS

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

New York Regents Exams

3 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	53	96.0%
Math	38	100.0%
Social Studies	24	100.0%

Math

Grade 390%

School 90% · District 50% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 487%

School 87% · District 53% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 591%

School 91% · District 43% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 691%

School 91% · District 45% · ▲ 47 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 791%

School 91% · District 45% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 38% · ▲ 45 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 391%

School 91% · District 49% · ▲ 42 pts above district

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

Grade 489%

School 89% · District 46% · ▲ 42 pts above district

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

Grade 588%

School 88% · District 50% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 688%

School 88% · District 45% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 43 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 789%

School 89% · District 47% · ▲ 42 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 886%

School 86% · District 45% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 35% · ▲ 49 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

This schoolYONKERS 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-income77%Higher-income95%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income72%Higher-income98%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income81%Higher-income90%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income74%Higher-income96%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income88%Higher-income90%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income78%Higher-income92%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income77%Higher-income93%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income72%Higher-income96%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income75%Higher-income97%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income79%Higher-income97%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income85%Higher-income95%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income74%Higher-income89%15 pp gap