Enrollment
230
Middle
DISTRICT 218 · STATE 531
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12·NCES 360009002477
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
2055 MAPES AVE, BRONX, NY 10460 · (718) 933-5976 · Bronx County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL230 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 53% of New York public middle schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded New York public middle schools
Student : Teacher
8.1:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 8.7:1 · STATE 10.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
216 students
DISTRICT 95% · STATE 58%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 83 | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 76 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 71 | 31% |
Student demographics
47%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 43% · STATE 72% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
NYS Assessments 2024-25 . % Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4)English Language Arts
47.0%
NY avg 58.3% . -4.0pp since 2023
Math
48.3%
NY avg 57.4% . +2.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the NYS Assessments, New York's statewide test, about 47 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 48 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New York schools, those numbers are about 58 and 57. Reading and writing scores are down about 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
NYS Assessments results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 47.0% | 48.3% |
| 2023-24 | 51.0% | 46.3% |
% Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4), all students and all tested grades.
Source: NYS Assessments. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
47.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
40.5%
based on NY schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+6.6pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 47% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 40% typical for New York schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New York's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP's state test result (47.1% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP this school | 230 | 93.9% | 47.1% |
| ESMT-IS 190 BRONX | 226 | 96.5% | 43.9% |
| ACADEMY OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY BRONX | 268 | 95.5% | 51.3% |
| KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREPARATORY ACADEMY III BRONX | 256 | 96.9% | 45.0% |
| SOUNDVIEW ACADEMY FOR CULTURE AND SCHOLARSHIP BRONX | 240 | 92.5% | 32.4% |
| EMBLAZE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL BRONX | 222 | 95.0% | 51.9% |
Matched among New York middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In New York | In Bronx County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 47.1% | #485 of 766 | #17 of 74 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 48.3% | #528 of 768 ▼ 4 | #22 of 74 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 47.0% | #381 of 768 ▼ 111 | #21 of 74 ▼ 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 230 | #662 of 796 | #49 of 77 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 8.1:1 | #43 of 683 | #5 of 51 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 47.0% | #388 of 688 | #24 of 53 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 93.9% | #88 of 773 | #48 of 75 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -55.2% | #10 of 524 | #5 of 59 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
230
-257 (-53%) vs 2020
-60% since 2010-11, when it was 576
Student : Teacher
8.1:1
was 11.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 230 | 28.3 | 8.1:1 | 94% (216) |
| 2023-24 | 245 | 30.7 | 8.0:1 | 95% (232) |
| 2022-23 | 298 | 29.2 | 10.2:1 | 96% (285) |
| 2020-21 | 487 | 42 | 11.6:1 | 96% (468) |
| 2017-18 | 513 | 40 | 12.8:1 | 94% (481) |
| 2015-16 | 550 | 37 | 14.9:1 | 88% (484) |
| 2010-11 | 576 | 35 | 16.5:1 | 87% (500) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP.
About MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is a low-enrollment middle school in BRONX, New York, (ZIP code 10460). Students in grades 6 through 8 attend, and enrollment is 230 students. The school's enrollment is 57% smaller than the 531 average for middle schools in New York.
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP falls under NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12, which has 47 schools enrolling 15,705 students.
Hispanic students are the majority at MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP, with 67% of enrollment. After that, the student body is 27% Black and 3% Native American. Among all residents of Bronx County, the Hispanic share is about 55%. Pick two students at random and there is a 47% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
At MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP, 28.3 full-time-equivalent teachers work with students, a ratio of about 8.1:1. That is lower than the 10.3:1 average for middle schools in New York. Roughly 94% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is graded B- by allk12, scoring above 53% of New York public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate on state tests with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. For MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP, the prediction is 40.5% and the result is 47.1%.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Bronx County show that the median household income is $48,676, roughly 22% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 23%. MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is one of 472 public schools in the county.
The school nearest to MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREPARATORY ACADEMY III, at a distance of less than a tenth of a mile. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Compared with its nearest neighbors, MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP ranks 3rd of 9 on average proficiency.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Large.
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP reported 487 students in 2020-21 and 230 in 2024-25. Changes that large sometimes follow a school adding or dropping grades, so the two figures may not cover the same grades. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 11.6:1 in 2020-21 to 8.1:1 in 2024-25.
Parents and students can post about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater at MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Bronx County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,404,779
Census ACS
Median income
$48,676
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
22%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
23%
Below federal line
Schools in county
472
202,028 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12
- PS 214Elementary · 814 students
- PS 47 JOHN RANDOLPHElementary · 789 students
- PS 195Elementary · 713 students
- PS 196Elementary · 662 students
- EAST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTUREHigh · 654 students
- MOTT HALL VHigh · 636 students
Other schools in BRONX
- BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF SCIENCE (THE)High · 2,953 students
- KIPP BRONX CHARTER SCHOOL IIICombined · 2,390 students
- HARRY S TRUMAN HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,650 students
- ATMOSPHERE ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLHigh · 1,481 students
- PS 83 DONALD HERTZElementary · 1,451 students
- RIVERDALE/KINGSBRIDGE ACADEMY (MS/HS 141)High · 1,383 students
Nearby schools
- KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREPARATORY ACADEMY III0.0 mi · 256
- SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND APPLIED LEARNING (THE)0.0 mi · 360
- COLIBRI COMMUNITY SCHOOL (THE)0.2 mi · 251
- PS 67 MOHEGAN SCHOOL0.2 mi · 284
- FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY V MIDDLE SCHOOL0.2 mi · 146
- PS 57 CRESCENT0.2 mi · 331
Frequently asked questions
About MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIPHow large is MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP?
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP enrolls approximately 230 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP serve?
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP?
The student-to-teacher ratio at MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is approximately 8.1:1 (28 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP?
At MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP, the student body is approximately 1% White, 67% Hispanic, 27% Black, 0% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Is MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP public or private?
MS 129 ACADEMY FOR INDEPENDENT LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP is a public K-12 school, overseen by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.