Nearly half of NYC public school students attend schools where most kids are failing core subjects

Nearly 900 New York City public schools are failing to adequately educate students, according to a new report that accuses education officials of allowing poor academic performance to become "normalized" through grade inflation, weak accountability and rising spending.

The report, released by the charter school network Success Academy and titled By Any Honest Measure, found that 906 public schools had fewer than half of their students proficient in math, reading or both on New York state exams last year. According to the analysis, roughly 43% of the city's approximately 912,000 public school students attend those schools.

The report comes as another blow to socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani's struggling administration, which is facing budget crises of "historic magnitudes." According to the report, New York City spent approximately $40 billion on public education in 2024, about $36,000 per student, roughly double the national average. It argues that some of the lowest-performing schools receive even higher levels of funding despite declining enrollment.

Researchers found that 503 of the schools had a majority of students failing both math and reading assessments. The report also says many of the schools have appeared on state accountability lists for years, with some identified as struggling for decades. Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz said the findings represent the most comprehensive review yet of consistently low-performing schools in the nation's largest public school system.

The analysis also criticizes the Mamdani administration's class-size reduction mandate, saying billions of dollars are being directed toward schools where enrollment has sharply fallen without evidence the policy will improve academic outcomes. It further argues that maintaining funding for under-enrolled schools has diverted resources while failing to improve student achievement. Among its recommendations, the report calls for greater transparency in school performance data, tying teacher and school evaluations more closely to student achievement, ending grade inflation, and expanding access to charter schools.