PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN

PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN is an elementary campus of tight-knit scale in BRONX, New York, part of NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #11, caters to 334 students in grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 25% below the typical public school in New York, which averages around 443 students.

Across the 62 schools in NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #11 (30,138 students total), PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN reports that Black students make up the majority at 58%. Other groups include 31% Hispanic, 4% Pacific Islander, 4% White. That is considerably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 33%.

Looking at school resources, The school lists 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 12.8:1 average. Roughly 76% of students at PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Bronx County runs at roughly 90%, so the school's eligibility rate is lower than the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 47.1%, the actual is 46.3%, a residual of -0.9 points.

Across the wider county, census data for Bronx County shows the typical household earns roughly $48,676 per year, 22% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 23%. Across Bronx County's 472 public schools (combined enrollment of about 202,028 students), PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is MS 596, roughly 0.0 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN comes 6th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 55.2%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PS 178 DR SELMAN WAKSMAN has ticked down 24%, going from 437 students in 2018 to 334 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.