Queens, a borough of New York City, is coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. This is the largest borough of New York City in the area and is adjacent to the borough of Brooklyn with Nassau County to the east. Queens also shares water boundaries with the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Also, Queens is the most linguistically diverse place on Earth and is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States. Elementary and secondary education in Queens is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions.
The New York City Department of Education manages the public schools in the borough, and it is the largest public school system in the United States. Most of the private elementary and secondary schools are affiliated with or identify themselves with the Roman Catholic or Jewish religious communities. Townsend Harris High School, a Queens public magnet high school for the humanities, is consistently ranked as among the top hundred high schools in the United States. One of the nine Specialized High Schools in New York City is located in Queens. Queens also has one of the best high schools in both the state and the country.
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1. The Kew-Forest School
The Kew-Forest School is a co-ed, independent, college preparatory school for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten to 12. This school was established in 1918 to serve the Kew Gardens/Forest Hills community of Queens. The Kew-Forest School draws students from forty different towns and areas, including Jamaica Estates, Nassau County, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Douglaston, Bayside, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Their student body boasts ethnic roots in sixty-five different countries, spanning the globe. This school is dedicated to fostering a lifelong love of learning, and its mission is to do more than just educate; it is to deeply inspire. The Kew-Forest School is accredited by NYSAIS, the MSACS, and the New York State DOE. Additionally, the school is a member of the NAIS and the ISAAGNY and is dedicated to meeting the standards set by both of the respected associations.
Founded In: 1918
Location: Forest Hills, NY
Ranking: 1
Contact: (718) 268-4667
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2. Ogden Elementary School
Ogden Elementary School is a designated New York State School of Excellence by the State Education Department. This school earns the title in a multitude of ways and takes pride in the fact that students are provided with a solid foundation that supports the expansion of knowledge in academics, social/emotional growth, physical abilities, and fine arts development. Ogden Elementary School was built fifty years ago in 1954 and currently acclaims fifty years of Excellence in Education, Community, and Spirit. This school is a comfortable single-level structure situated on nine quiet acres in the North Woodmere area of Valley Stream. The school building has two full-sized gyms, a band/orchestra room, a cafeteria with a full lunch program, a computer lab, a library/media center, and an art room. The spacious outdoor play area includes both baseball and soccer fields and a playground.
Founded In: 1954
Location: Valley Stream, NY
Ranking: 2
Contact: 516-792-4700
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3. Queens Paideia School
Queens Paideia School, an independent Kindergarten to Grade eight school, implements widely accepted tenets of educational theory and current research. This pertains to how children learn best because of the school’s 6:1 student-teacher ratio, and they are able to focus on students’ academic and personal development, resulting in competent and confident learners. This school was founded in 2009 by a group of parents and educators who shared the concern that traditional classrooms cannot accommodate the needs or consider the true potential of most children. Queens Paideia School offers a viable substitute for parents who seek academic rigor and greater involvement in their children’s education. QPS is subsidized by the Mechner Foundation as a long-term demonstration of providing personalized learning for children with diverse abilities. QPS has 180 school days on average, with paced breaks throughout the year that mirror those of the public schools.
Founded In: 2009
Location: Long Island City, NY
Ranking: 3
Contact: 718-361-0070
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4. The Co-Op School
The Co-Op School’s mission and core values involve providing a safe and stimulating micro-environment in which students experiment and learn. All members of this school, including the students, families, and staff, contribute to the development of their unique culture and participate in improvements. The Co-Op School’s students learn to work together, preparing for their place in a global environment; their families also work within committees and on the board of directors to support the school. This school believes in the following core values: Compassion, Uniqueness, Innovation, Community Action, and Joy. The Co-Op School’s elementary division teaches kindergarten through fifth grade, and their philosophy is that students learn best when they are devoted to finding answers to their own questions. Their teachers use the Responsive Classrooms Approach to enable this process and provide meaningful learning experiences for all students, preparing them for the grades ahead.
Founded In: 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Ranking: 4
Contact: 347-721-3408
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5. Garden School
Garden School, a coeducational independent school, is located in East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, offering a nursery-grade 12 education. This school was originally organized as the Garden Country Day School in 1923 by a group of neighborhood parents. The school was later renamed after the newly conceived garden apartment complexes, which were built by Edward MacDougall, founder of the Queensboro Corporation. Garden school’s size varies based on enrollment every year. Currently, there are 250 to 275 students in Nursery through Grade 12, with an added 138 Universal Pre-K students in the Early Childhood Center. Furthermore, depending on the grade level, grade sizes will range from around 15-20 in elementary and middle school and under 30 for high school. There are additional teachers in Nursery, Pre-Kindergarten, and Kindergarten, and student to teacher ratio is 7:1.
Founded In: 1923
Location: Jackson Heights, NY
Ranking: 5
Contact: (718) 335-6363
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6. The Anderson School
The Anderson School PS 334, a New York City school, is for children in grades kindergarten through 8 from the city’s five boroughs. This school was founded more than thirty years ago in 1987 as the Anderson Program under the stewardship of PS 9. The New York City Department of Education spun off Anderson in July 2005 as a stand-alone school named PS 334. Most recently, Anderson school’s enrollment was 535 students, and since inception, Anderson has had two sections (classrooms) per grade. The school received its name from its former parent school, the Sarah Anderson School, a K-5 neighborhood catchment school that offers two programs: Renaissance and Gifted and Talented. Both schools shared a building at 100 West 84th Street until PS 334 moved to 100 West 77th Street in July 2009.
Founded In: 1987
Location: New York, NY
Ranking: 6
Contact: (212) 595-7193
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7. The 30th Avenue School
The 30th Avenue School’s mission involves the inclusion of diverse student identities, inquiry-based learning, and data-driven decision-making. This Q300 will graduate students who collaborate with others to ask meaningful questions, solve complex problems, and engage responsibly with their communities and beyond. Students engage in the active process of creating knowledge and better understanding the world around them by exploring who they are and who they want to be in ways that drive a sense of responsibility and action. Their values include Inclusion, Inquiry, and Responsibility. The 30th Avenue School, a co-located school, shares facilities with PS 17. The principals of the two schools form the Building Council that cooperates to share resources, best practices and communicates on a regular basis to guarantee the security and well-being of everyone in the building. Each school is based on its own floor of the building, and the two schools have allocated time slots for using the gymnasium, cafeteria, auditorium, and outdoor play areas.
Founded In: 2014
Location: Astoria, NY/Long Island City, NY
Ranking: 7
Contact: (718) 626-8502 or (718) 726-0501
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8. Williamsburg Northside School
Williamsburg Northside School has an advantage for being a Northside Nursery through Eighth Grade Education, and this school specializes in the foundational years. This school has highly qualified teachers that use their content knowledge and skill of developmental needs of early childhood and young learners to design a student-centered, inquiry-based curriculum from preschool through eighth grade. Students who arrive at Northside at two years old and graduate in eighth grade have the opportunity to grow and develop in a nurturing and warm school community for twelve years. Williamsburg Northside School’s model allows them to provide a program that celebrates childhood, and as a result, their students and families are able to focus on the present by celebrating all of the joys of childhood.
Founded In: 1999
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Ranking: 8
Contact: 718.599.9600
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9. East Elmhurst Community School
East Elmhurst Community School’s mission is for its graduates to be curious and courageous critical thinkers who are cultural, active, interdependent, and personally aware community members. Their vision is for children to learn by doing, by taking risks, and by learning from their mistakes. Through the arts, writing projects, and content-based dialogue, children develop and refine their own opinions and solutions concerning local and global issues. Through daily family engagement and cooperation, children experience consistency between home and school and have a shared network of nurturing and support that allows them to become the fullest expression of themselves. Their core values involve Curiosity, Courage, and Community. East Elmhurst Community School has the following grade levels: Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, Fourth Grade &Fifth Grade.
Founded In: 2015
Location: Queens, NY
Ranking: 9
Contact: (718) 505-6050
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10. Trilok School
Trilok School motivates its students to become citizens who care for the world around and beyond them. They strive to bring out the emotional and academic best in the children by integrating strong academic rigor, creative exploration, respect for the environment, peace-work, and inclusivity. This is a private school dedicated to providing individualized STEAM education, and Trilok is the school for your family. Trilok School’s three world structure, which describes the three poles of our educational vision are the child, the parent, and the teacher. This school’s elementary school has mixed-age classrooms covering learning materials for the mid-elementary ages. They learn mathematics, life science, literacy, social and peace studies, foreign language, movement and mindfulness, visual art, and performing arts.
Founded In: 2007
Location: BROOKLYN, NY
Ranking: 10
Contact: 718.797.1700 or 718.576.2563
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