Citywide
New York City ELA results, grades 3–8
Citywide ELA results for grades 3 to 8. All percentages are computed from student counts in the NYCPS public files rather than from published percentages. The baseline selector sets the year against which 2026 is compared.
Percentage of students at Level 3–4 and at Level 1, 2023 to 2026
Percent at Level 3–4 (proficient) and percent at Level 1, 2023–2026. Dashed rules mark the first year each NYC Reads wave could show up in results: a spring test sits at the end of that school year, so a wave launched in SY 2023–24 first appears in 2024. 2023 is the last pre-rollout year and the first on the current standards.
Distribution of students across performance levels, by year
Share of tested students at each performance level.
Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4
Distribution of students across performance levels, by grade
Levels 1 and 2 are plotted below the axis, Levels 3 and 4 above it, so the height above zero is the proficient share. Select a year to compare.
Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4
Change in proficiency and Level 1 share, by grade
Change in each grade between the selected baseline and 2026, in percentage points.
Results under the previous standards, 2022, against 2023 to 2026
2022 is the last year on the previous standards, shown as a single reference point against the comparable era. The gap in the axis is the standards change. Exams were canceled in 2020 and voluntary in 2021, so those years have no usable data.
2022 sits on the previous standards and cannot be differenced against 2023 or later. The break in the line is deliberate, and no change is calculated across it anywhere in this tool.
Community school districts
District explorer
Use the Districts filter to pick one district or several; leave it clear to compare across all 32. Selecting a single district also opens a detail panel for it. Filters combine: adding a second filter narrows the set. Any column can be sorted. The underlying results files can be downloaded from the NYCPS InfoHub.
Districts by direction of change on both measures
Districts that moved the right way on both measures, and those that moved the wrong way on both, named. Both lists follow the filters above, so they change with the baseline, grade band and student group.
Change in Level 1 share against change in proficiency, by district
Horizontal axis: change in the Level 1 share (left is fewer Level 1s, which is the improvement). Vertical axis: change in proficiency. The shaded upper-left quadrant is where both moved the right way.
Districts ranked by change from baseline to 2026
Change from baseline to 2026, in percentage points.
Change in cohort size against change in proficiency
Horizontal axis: the change in how many students sat the test. Vertical axis: the change in proficiency. Colored by borough.
District results, 2026, and change from baseline
Improved on both measures
Mixed: improved on one
Worse on both
Geography
Boroughs
Select a single borough to see its own results first, or leave all five selected to compare across them. Borough figures come from the NYCPS borough file, which is compiled separately from the district file; the two do not sum to each other.
Selected measure by borough, 2023 to 2026
Distribution of students across performance levels, by borough, 2026
Share of tested students at each performance level.
Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4
Selected measure by district, 2026, colored by borough
Proficiency and Level 1 share, by borough and grade, 2026
Proficiency and Level 1 share in each grade. Cells are shaded within each measure.
Implementation
NYC Reads phases
Districts adopted the NYC Reads curricula in successive waves. Because the waves began in different school years, districts had completed different numbers of implementation years by the 2026 test. This page groups districts by wave and reports results for each group.
Read this before using this page. Districts were not assigned to phases at random, and the groups did not start from the same place. Differences below are descriptive contrasts between groups of districts, not estimates of the effect of NYC Reads. Nothing here isolates the program from everything else that changed in those districts over the same years.
NYC Reads launch timeline, by district
Launch timeline as published by NYCPS. District 75 appears in several phases but is not reported in the district file, so it cannot be shown here.
Years of implementation completed at each test administration
The elementary curriculum covers K–5, so it reaches tested grades 3–5. The middle-school rollout reaches grades 6–8. A test taken in spring 2026 sits at the end of school year 2025–26.
Elementary phase groups, tested grades 3 to 5
Phase 1 districts had three years of the curriculum by the 2026 test; Phase 2 districts had two.
Middle school phase groups, tested grades 6 to 8
Eight districts began the middle-school rollout in 2025–26, so 2026 is their first tested year. The rest had not started.
Change by phase group, and the difference between groups
Change from 2023 and from 2024 to 2026 for each group, and the difference between groups. Aggregates are computed by summing student counts across the districts in each group, so larger districts carry more weight.
Elementary phase groups measured on grades 6 to 8
The same two elementary wave groups, but measured on grades 6–8, which the elementary curriculum does not reach. If the elementary contrast in the chart above reflected the rollout, this one should be flat. It is a rough check, not a formal test.
Implementation partners
Professional learning providers and curriculum
Districts by K–5 professional learning provider
Every JESP named in the supplied SY 2025–26 chart, with the community school districts assigned to it.
Districts by adopted K–5 curriculum
The K–5 curriculum each district was using in SY 2025–26.
Where each group stands, and how far it moved
Each row runs from the baseline year (hollow dot) to 2026 (filled dot). The number of districts in the group is in brackets. Purple means the movement is in the direction of improvement, orange against it.
Group results by year, 2023 to 2026
The same groups over time. Each line aggregates the districts in that group by summing student counts. Use the group-size and show filters above to reduce the number of lines.
Results by group and year
Every group, including any not charted above. Districts in each group, students tested in 2026, the measure in each year, and the change from the selected baseline.
Student groups
Subgroups and gaps
ELA results for each student group reported in the NYCPS files, and the difference in proficiency between paired groups over time. Groups with five or fewer tested students are suppressed in the source files, as is the next smallest group wherever the first could otherwise be recovered by subtraction. Suppressed cells show as s and are never treated as zero.
Selected measure by student group, 2023 to 2026
Student group results, 2026
Tested students and level distribution.
Difference in proficiency between paired student groups, citywide
Difference in the proficient share between paired groups, in percentage points. A falling line means the gap narrowed. Computed on all grades, all districts, from the citywide file.
Student group names used here, and the source they come from
Every group named on screen, against the exact
Category value and tab it is read from in the NYCPS files. Names are spelled out for reading; the underlying value is unchanged, and every lookup in this tool uses the file's own string.Comparability
Paper and computer administration
NYSED moved the ELA test from paper to computer one set of grades at a time. Grades are grouped here by the year in which they transitioned, and results are reported for each group.
What this can and cannot tell you. Grades differ from one another for many reasons that have nothing to do with how the test was delivered, and each group here is only two grades. This page shows that the timing of the switch lines up with a movement in the results; it does not establish that the format caused it.
Year of transition to computer-based administration, by grade
As stated in the NOTES tab of the NYCPS files. The grouping used on this page follows directly from it.
Result
Source files (NYCPS InfoHub)
Selected measure by transition group, 2023 to 2026
Change in the selected measure from 2023, by transition group
Percentage-point movement relative to 2023 for each group.
Selected measure by grade and year, with the transition year marked
Every grade, every year on the current standards. The year each grade moved to computer is marked.
Participation
Test refusals by district
The share of students reported with a refusal code on the grades 3–8 ELA test, for each community school district. This is the only page in this tool that does not come from the NYCPS results files: those files carry a count of students tested and no enrollment denominator, so no participation rate can be derived from them. The figures here are published by NYSED.
Each line aggregates the districts shown by weighting each district's published refusal rate by its student count. NYSED publishes the rate to one decimal place, so an aggregate carries that rounding.
Refusal rate against proficiency, by district
Districts ordered by refusal rate, colored by borough.