P.S. 86 Kingsbridge Heights

With 1,600 students, PS 86 Kingsbridge Heights is one of the city’s largest elementary schools and, unlike most, it includes a 6th grade. Despite the size, those in the school community say the school is an extremely safe and orderly place where administrators, teachers, students and parents respect one another, according to NYC School Surveys. 

Responding to a Department of Education survey, teachers said they have the resources they need, that their colleagues support one another and strive to improve the schools and that students participate in class and have to work hard. Parents and teacher give high marks to Fiona Tyson, who has been principal since 2012.

Test scores are above average for District 10, with PS 86 students performing better in math than in English language arts. Test scores for students with disabilities are low.

The school is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with as many as a third of the children still learning to speak English. Perhaps because of that, school leaders saw vocabulary as a challenge for many of their students and have focused on ways to get students not only to know more words but to use them in conversation and writing. The school has several arts partnerships as well as its own music and visual art teachers.

ADMISSIONS: PS 86 is a zoned school. (Gail Robinson, from DOE reports, April 2020)