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Our Insights

What’s Special

Hands-on instruction in design and technology

The Downside

Limited foreign language instruction

The Urban Assembly Maker Academy (UA Maker) is a CTE (career and technical education) school inspired by the maker movement, which promotes the use of technology and design principles to solve everyday problems. The school opened in September 2014 with strong partnerships with Intersection, a design firm that helped develop the maker components of the curriculum, Parsons School of Design and Spring Point Schools, which helped design the school and provided start-up funds.

All students at UA Maker take a full load of academic classes in addition to learning design and related skills. Ninth-graders take a foundations course and beginning in 10th grade students are introduced to a range of topics such as digital animation, video game programing, Python coding language, design, protying, and finance.

A lot of the hands-on design work takes place in the school’s maker lab, a large open space equipped with heavy-duty equipment such as laser and vinyl cutters and 3-D printers.

The school has put in place measures, such as a generous after-school tutoring program, to ensure all students get individual attention and the opportunity to work at their own pace and skill level. Students also participate in a four-year advisory program covering grade-specific issues. For example, freshmen advisory focuses on the school’s core values and understanding the design process, while junior advisory addresses college admissions.

All freshmen take an applied physics course that emphasizes more design concepts and hands-on learning than the standard Regents physics curriculum. and either algebra or geometry, depending on their incoming skill level. In the upper grades there are some Advanced Placement classes and College Now courses in conjunction with several CUNY schools.

To help all students keep up with instruction in English, teachers rely on differentiated texts (middle-, high school- and college- level) covering the same topics of study.

Since students take maker-themed classes every semester, there is little room in their schedule for non-maker themed elective classes. Typical of many CTE (career and technical education schools), foreign language instruction is limited to one year. Students learn Spanish.

UA Maker is housed in the Murry Bergtraum High School building, which is home to the Manhattan Early College School for Advertising and Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management. In addition to school-run after-school activities students from all schools in the building may participate in campus-wide sports teams. (Laura Zingmond, web reports, December 2018)

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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?
 
95%
How many students with disabilities graduate in 4 years?
 
91%
Average daily attendance
 
82%
How many students miss 18 or more days of school?
 
57%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school offers enough activities and services for their children's needs?
 
100%
How many parents of students with disabilities say this school works to achieve the goals of their students' IEPs?
 
100%
From the 2021-22 School Quality Guide and 2020-21 NYC School Survey

Students

525
Number of students
Citywide Average is 599

Race/Ethnicity


School
Citywide
Low-income students
 
72%
Students with disabilities
 
23%
Multilingual learners
 
5%
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?
 
89%
How many students think bullying happens most or all of the time at this school?
 
28%
How many students say that some are bullied at their school because of their gender or sexual orientation?
 
19%
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?
 
80%
1.2
Years of principal experience at this school
Citywide Average is 7
104
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?
 
70%
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

 
5%

Computer Science

 
15%

Physics

Not offered in 2019-20

Advanced Foreign Language

Not offered in 2019-20

AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science

 
17%

AP/IB Math or Science

 
12%

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?
 
66%
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?
 
85%
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?
 
82%
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

Urban Assembly Maker Academy (M61A)

Admissions Method: Ed. Opt.

Program Description:

Typical 9th grade schedules include Physics, Algebra or Geometry, US History, ELA, Health, Advisory, Physical Education, Foundations of Computer Science, and Foundations of Design.

Offerings

From the 2024 High School Directory

Advanced Courses

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

Boys PSAL teams

Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Indoor Track, Lacrosse, Outdoor Track, Soccer, Volleyball, Wrestling

Girls PSAL teams

Basketball, Cross Country, Flag Football, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track, Softball, Volleyball

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

NYC Department of Education: MySchools

Contact & Location

Location

411 Pearl Street
Manhattan NY 10038

Trains: 1 Line, E Line to Park Place; 2 Line, 3 Line, A Line, C Line to Fulton St; 4 Line, 5 Line, 6 Line, J Line, Z Line to Chambers St; N Line, Q Line to Canal St; R Line to City Hall

Buses: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BxM18, M103, M15, M15-SBS, M22, M55, M9, QM11, QM25, QM7, QM8, SIM1, SIM10, SIM11, SIM15, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3, SIM31, SIM32, SIM33C, SIM34, SIM35, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM5, SIM6, X27, X28, X37, X38


Contact

Principal: Amy Piller

Parent Coordinator: Susan Crowson

Website

Other Details

Shared campus? Yes

This school shares the Murry Bergtraum Educational Campus with three other schools

Uniforms required? No
Metal detectors? No

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