Summary
Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon is an elementary school in South Ozone Park, New York, serving 412 students from pre-kindergarten to 5th grade. The school is part of the New York City Geographic District #27, which is ranked 571 out of 874 districts in the state and has a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger.
Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon consistently performs below the district and state averages in English Language Arts and Math proficiency on the New York State Assessments. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 18.18% of 3rd graders, 34.09% of 4th graders, and 22.5% of 5th graders were proficient or better in ELA, compared to the district averages of 56.42%, 54.57%, and 55.9%, respectively. The school's math proficiency rates are also significantly lower than the district and state. Additionally, Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon has consistently ranked in the bottom 25% of New York elementary schools, with a ranking between 1,395 and 2,362 out of 2,201 to 2,445 schools over the past several years.
Despite the relatively high per-student spending at Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon, the school's academic performance remains significantly below the district and state averages. This suggests that simply increasing funding may not be the sole solution to improving student outcomes, and that other factors, such as instructional quality, school leadership, and student and family engagement, may play a crucial role. Interestingly, there are several higher-performing elementary schools in the immediate vicinity of Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon, including Ps 123, Ps 96, and Ps 223 Lyndon B Johnson, as well as several magnet schools in the New York City Geographic District #28. Additionally, the data includes information on two nearby charter schools, Success Academy Charter School-South Jamaica and Rochdale Early Advantage Charter School, which generally outperform Ps 45 Clarence Witherspoon and the surrounding district schools on academic measures.
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