D&D School Profile

PS 29 is a PK-5 school with 751 students, located on the edge of a busy and newly thriving commercial area in the South Bronx. Its mission statement proclaims: "We are CAPABLE, CONNECTED and CONTRIBUTING to make our future world a better place." Seventeen percent of its population are ELLs; most of these are Spanish-speaking, with smaller numbers of Chinese and Portuguese speakers. PS 29 has Spanish-English bilingual classes with a 90-10 model (90% of instruction in L1 and 10% in L2) for grades K-2, and a 10-90 model (10% of instruction in L1 and 90% in L2) for grades 3-5. ESL support is offered throughout the school for all ELL students who have opted out of bilingual instruction.

Special academic programs at PS 29 include Project Arts, peer tutoring, a choral and instrumental program, Project READ, and the Computer Curriculum Corp. program. Community partners include the Rose Kennedy Center, Bronx Lebanon Medical Center, and the Central Park Historical Society.

PS 29 has a strong and vital connection with its parents. The Family Room is a welcoming, busy place, equipped with a lending library in English and Spanish, where classes and workshops for parents are offered in everything from arts and crafts to computers to family literacy programs. Parents volunteer in classrooms, the cafeteria, and school offices, and serve on the School Leadership committee.

PS 29 students maintain high academic achievement, especially in mathematics, where they outperform their peers throughout New York City on both state and city assessments. Similarly, the percentage of ELL students performing at/above grade level in English reading and in mathematics is above average for New York City.