149-11 Melbourne Avenue, Queens
Average Class Size: 30
Progress Report Grade: A
Average Daily Attendance: 98%
SAT Score: 1920
Graduation Rate: 100%
Dropout Rate: 0%
College Entrance: 100% accepted, almost all go to four-year schools
EXPECTATIONS are high at this screened, non-specialized school, where students take full course loads for four years and routinely engage in innovative projects, like an annual election simulation in which they role-play real-life races. A full range of honors and AP courses are offered alongside electives like “Myths and Monsters” and Russian literature. Seniors take four actual college courses at Queens College, where Townsend Harris has its own modern building complete with DNA lab and broadcast studio. It’s known for humanities but had Intel semifinalists the last two years and won the Intel School of Distinction for Science Award in 2008. It also won 30 medals at last year’s Science Olympiad. Successful sports teams, clubs and an award-winning student newspaper give the school, “an incredible sense of community,” said principal Ken Bonamo.