A Message from InsideSchools: The data below is the most up-to-date data available from City and State systems. We are working hard to update the narratives for all schools. We welcome your insights in the Comments section. Questions? Ask us!

Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology

Grades: 9-12
Staff Pick Staff Pick for Special Ed

Our Insights

What’s Special

A friendly haven for tech-inclined teens

The Downside

Metal detectors for random screening

Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology is a winning school where teens may take apart a computer and put it back together, master a programming language like Java or become certified in Photoshop.

Opened in 2011, the school has quickly developed warm traditions and effective teaching methods. Top graduates have been accepted to highly selective colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Occidental, Babson, Swarthmore, and Brown.

“The school clearly moves the needle: While 80 percent of students who enter are performing below grade level, 65 percent leave at or above it,” The Hechinger Report said. 

Gateway offers an unusual level of personal attention. It has special math and reading classes for 9th-graders with weaker skills. Students who fall behind stay for small group instruction the last period of each day. There are four guidance counselors, a large number for a school so small. 

“You can’t fall through the cracks,” says principal Kristina Dvorakovskaya, a former physics and math teacher and alumna of Stuyvesant High School who became head of the school in 2017.

Freshmen study software engineering, information technology, and digital design and animation, then choose one field of concentration. All students take four years of math and science; calculus and other Advanced Placement courses are offered. Spanish speakers may take AP Spanish their freshman year, whether or not they are strong in other subjects. “This levels the playing field,” says Dvorakovskaya.

Teachers visit incoming students at their homes before the school year starts; at the end of the summer, new students participate in “gateaway,” an overnight camping trip with staff to make new friends and push their limits through various challenges. During the year, parents don silly hats and join the annual “holi-gate” celebration featuring hot cider, cookies and crafts. The school band performs singing telegrams on Valentine’s Day.

“One of the things that makes Gateway unique is the strong sense of tradition,” the principal says. “Relationships are really at the core of everything we do here.”

Students take charge in many ways at Gateway, she says. They design and print posters and flyers for school dances and family movie nights. They lead their own club fair and student conferences.  A group of senior girls organized a campus-wide walkout for gun control and put up a Go Fund Me page to raise money to hire a bus to take a group to a march in Washington.

Clubs include robotics, creative writing, music, art and digital photography. The global immersion club, which takes one international trip each year, has been to Costa Rica, Europe, Japan and, soon, the Galapagos Islands. The "gamer haven" club is especially popular.

Boys outnumber girls about four to one, but girls take charge in a weekly activist group called Leadership for Change.

Gateway is one of more than 20 schools created and run by the nonprofit Urban Assembly. It shares the Graphics Educational Campus with the Business of Sports School and Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School (as well as Success Academy Hell's Kitchen Charter School). Sports, ROTC and some events are campus-wide.

The building has a metal detector. Students are scanned several days a week for random checks rather than every time they enter the building. (Lydie Raschka, web reports and interview, April 2018)

Get more from InsideSchools

School Stats

Citywide Average Key
This school is Better Near Worse than the citywide average

Academics

School
Citywide
How many students graduate in 4 years?
 
97%
How many students with disabilities graduate in 4 years?
 
96%
How many English language learners graduate in 4 years?
 
100%
Average daily attendance
 
86%
How many students miss 18 or more days of school?
 
45%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school offers enough activities and services for their children's needs?
 
98%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school works to achieve the goals of their students' IEPs?
 
98%
From the 2021-22 School Quality Guide and 2020-21 NYC School Survey

Students

425
Number of students
Citywide Average is 599

Race/Ethnicity


School
Citywide
Low-income students
 
65%
Students with disabilities
 
27%
Multilingual learners
 
4%
From the 2022-23 Demographic Snapshot

Safety & Vibe

School
Citywide
How many students were suspended?
 
1%
How many students say they feel safe in the hallways, bathrooms and locker rooms?
 
90%
How many students think bullying happens most or all of the time at this school?
 
32%
How many students say that some are bullied at their school because of their gender or sexual orientation?
 
27%
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey and 2019-20 NY State Report Card

Faculty & Staff

School
Citywide
How many teachers say the principal is an effective manager?
 
50%
5.1
Years of principal experience at this school
Citywide Average is 7
88
Number of students for each guidance counselor or social worker
Citywide Average is 157

Teachers’ Race/Ethnicity


How many teachers have 3 or more years of experience teaching?
 
82%
Are teachers effective?
From the 2020-21 NYC School Survey, 2021-22 School Quality Guide, 2019-20 Report on School-Based Staff Demographics, 2021 Guidance Counselor Report, and this school's most recent Quality Review Report

Advanced Courses

Which students have access to advanced courses at this school? Learn more

Calculus

 
27%

Computer Science

 
39%

Physics

 
21%

Advanced Foreign Language

 
6%

AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science

 
28%

AP/IB Math or Science

 
43%

Music

Not offered in 2019-20
From unpublished, anonymized data from the 2021-22 school year provided by the New York State Education Department, brought to you by

College Readiness

School
Citywide
How many students graduate with test scores high enough to enroll at CUNY without remedial help?
 
85%
How many students take a college-level course or earn a professional certificate?
 
96%
How many students who have graduated from this high school stay in college for at least 3 semesters?
 
86%
From the 2020-21 and 2021-22 School Quality Guide
How many students filled out a FAFSA form by the end of their senior year?
 
69%
From the 2022-23 FAFSA data released by Federal Student Aid, brought you by
For more information about our data sources, see About Our Data · More DOE statistics for this school

Programs & Admissions

From the 2024 High School Directory

UA Gateway (A23A)

Admissions Method: Ed. Opt.

Program Description:

Digital Design & Animation, Information Technology & Systems, Software Engineering.

Offerings

From the 2024 High School Directory

Language Courses

Spanish

Advanced Courses

Algebra II (Advanced Math), AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Psychology, AP United States History, Chemistry (Advanced Science), Physics (Advanced Science)

Boys PSAL teams

Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Handball, Outdoor Track, Soccer, Table Tennis, Volleyball

Girls PSAL teams

Basketball, Flag Football, Outdoor Track, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball

Read about admissions, academics, and more at this school on NYCDOE’s MySchools

NYC Department of Education: MySchools

Contact & Location

Location

439 West 49Th Street
Manhattan NY 10019

Trains: 1 Line, 2 Line, 3 Line, 7 Line, A Line, S Line to 42nd St; B Line, D Line to 7th Av; C Line, E Line to 50th St; N Line, Q Line, R Line to 49th St

Buses: BxM2, M10, M104, M11, M12, M20, M31, M34A-SBS, M42, M50, M57, M7, SIM22, SIM25, SIM26, SIM30, SIM8, SIM8X


Contact

Principal: Kristina Dvorakovskaya

Parent Coordinator: Viviana Diaz

Website

Other Details

Shared campus? Yes

This school shares the Graphics Educational Campus with four other schools

Uniforms required? No
Metal detectors? Yes

Was this information helpful?

Get more from InsideSchools

You may also like …

Food and Finance High School

525 West 50Th Street
Manhattan, NY 10019

High School of Hospitality Management

525 West 50Th Street
Manhattan, NY 10019

Comments

  • Is this your school? Please post any news, updates, events, changes, or other information!
  • We welcome questions, open discussions, and disagreements but comments with personal attacks, rude language, or those with seemingly malicious intent will be deleted.
  • Very long comments, those that contain links, or repeat comments may be blocked by our spam filter.
  • Problems? email us at contact@insideschools.org.
  • Users must comply with our Terms of Use.

×