SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY

SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY operates as an intimate elementary-level community in ROCHESTER, New York, overseen by ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT. Current enrollment sits at 306 students spanning grades pre-K through 6. That puts it 31% leaner than the typical public school in New York, which averages around 443 students.

SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY is one of 51 schools operated by ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, a district that instructs 25,949 students overall.

On the student-mix side, SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY reports that the largest single group is Black, at 66% of enrollment. Other groups include 18% Hispanic, 7% White, 6% multiracial, 3% Asian. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 14%.

On the resource side, SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY logs 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 12.8:1 average. Roughly 73% of students at SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Monroe County (around 50%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY is in the bottom 10% of New York public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 48.2%; SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY posts 22.9%, -25.3 points below that line.

In the broader community, Monroe County reports that the typical household earns roughly $76,382 per year, about 42% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY is one of 186 public schools in Monroe County (combined enrollment of about 106,108 students).

DR WALTER COOPER ACADEMY is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY at 6th of 9; the average score across the group is 27.0%.

SCHOOL 53 MONTESSORI ACADEMY operates from a city-core location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count changed only slightly: 311 students in 2018 compared to 306 in 2025. The White share of enrollment ticked down from 14% to 7% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 14.1:1 in 2018 to 11.4:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.