Districts 2 and 26 tie at NYC's top — but one is screened-rich and one is zoned
The question
How can New York City's two top-scoring elementary school districts produce the same average outcomes through very different organizational designs?
School District 2 covers Manhattan's Upper East and West Sides and Tribeca. School District 26 covers parts of northeast Queens — Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck. They tie at 78.2% on the overall elementary-school measure, the top two districts in New York City. Their student demographics are similarly easier-to-serve (both in the most-advantaged group), but their organizational structures differ sharply. District 2 has 36 schools, many of them screened or gifted-and-talented, and families navigate a complex application landscape. District 26 has 22 schools, almost entirely zoned neighborhood schools.
Data analysis
Investigation run 2026-05-30.
TL;DR
School Districts 2 (Manhattan) and 26 (Queens) tie at 78.2% on the overall elementary-school measure — the top two districts in New York City. Their student demographics are similarly easier-to-serve. The structures aren't: District 2 runs 36 schools and many selective programs; District 26 runs 22 schools, almost all zoned neighborhood schools. The same headline average comes from two different organizational designs.
Top 10 New York City school districts by overall elementary score (2024-25)
| District | Schools | Avg score | Avg challenge-group rating (0-1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| District 26 (Queens) | 22 | 78.2% | 0.32 |
| District 2 (Manhattan) | 36 | 78.2% | 0.30 |
| District 28 (Queens) | 27 | 71.9% | 0.45 |
| District 25 (Queens) | 26 | 71.4% | 0.45 |
| District 20 (Brooklyn) | 31 | 70.9% | 0.56 |
| District 18 (Brooklyn) | 13 | 68.6% | 0.51 |
| District 15 (Brooklyn) | 25 | 67.5% | 0.40 |
| District 16 (Brooklyn) | 13 | 65.1% | 0.49 |
| District 31 (Staten Island) | 50 | 64.2% | 0.50 |
| District 30 (Queens) | 29 | 63.2% | 0.45 |
Two organizational designs, same headline score
District 2 (Manhattan) runs dozens of selective and gifted-and-talented programs feeding a network of screened middle schools (NEST+m, Quest to Learn, Salk, Lab). Families navigate a complex application landscape. District 26 (Queens) has very few selective programs — students attend their zoned neighborhood school. The two districts post the same average elementary-school score; selection-heavy and selection-light can both produce top-tier averages when the underlying student bodies are advantaged.
What characterizes District 26
District 26 serves an affluent, heavily Asian Queens population (Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck). Family engagement is high, absenteeism is low, and supplemental learning (tutoring, test prep) is common. The 'school effect' is hard to separate from the input effect. The district also has long-tenured principals and low staff turnover.
What District 2 does differently
District 2 combines Manhattan-level resources with a market of selective options. Students who don't get into the screened middle schools attend zoned middle schools that are themselves high-functioning. The selection process sorts students into different programs without losing the ones who don't get into the most-selective ones.
Lessons
Neither model exports cleanly. The District 26 model assumes the affluent, stable family base to begin with. The District 2 model assumes the infrastructure of multiple high-quality screened schools. The point isn't that one approach is right — it's that strong aggregate outcomes can come from very different organizational structures when the underlying student bodies are advantaged.
What's next
Profile a District 26 zoned elementary (like P.S. 188 Daniel Quigley) alongside a District 2 screened middle school (like NEST+m). Same headline outcomes, different paths.
Methodology & replication recipe — the data sources, queries, and steps behind this analysis.
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