Townsend Harris High School: average SAT score, 2017-2024
#11 of 548 citywide · 1294/1600 in 2024 · Queens · DBN 25Q525
- SAT total, 2024
- 1294
- Math
- 651
- Reading & writing
- 643
- Students counted
- 372
In 2024, students at Townsend Harris High School who sat the SAT averaged 1294 out of 1600 — 651 on Math and 643 on Reading and Writing. That is 315 points above the 979 averaged across the 461 New York City high schools that reported a score that year. Within Queens, where the average is 966, it is 328 points higher. Citywide it ranks 11 of 548, inside the top fifty. In Queens it is 2 of 92.
Across 8 measured years, the school's average went from 1406 in 2017 to 1294 in 2024, down 112 points. 2024 is the lowest figure on record here. The peak was 1414, back in 2018. Citywide the average moved down 37 points over the same span, so relative to the rest of New York this school is behind by 75 points.
The sharpest single move came between 2023 and 2024, when the average dropped 79 points in one year. Its place in the citywide order has hardly changed: 7 of 453 in 2017, 11 of 461 in 2024.
The 2024 figure is the average of 372 students at this school who actually sat the exam — not of the whole graduating class. That number has grown sharply since 2017, when 286 students were counted, so year-to-year moves here reflect a changing group of test takers as much as anything else. Of those test takers, 88% on Math and 95% on Reading and Writing cleared the College Board's college-readiness benchmark.
The highest average in Queens that year belonged to Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, at 1463, 169 points ahead of Townsend Harris High School. A gap of that size is real, and it is the kind of distance targeted preparation is normally asked to close.
Eight years against the city
SAT total out of 1600. The dashed line is the citywide average for the same years, weighted by the number of students counted at each school.
Year by year
| Year | SAT total | Math | Reading & writing | Tested | College ready, math | College ready, R&W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1406 | 721 | 685 | 286 | 98% | 98% |
| 2018 | 1414 | 727 | 687 | 283 | 98% | 98% |
| 2019 | 1405 | 719 | 686 | 291 | 98% | 98% |
| 2020 | 1378 | 707 | 671 | 284 | 95% | 96% |
| 2021 | 1385 | 705 | 680 | 296 | 91% | 90% |
| 2022 | 1341 | 676 | 665 | 306 | 89% | 93% |
| 2023 | 1373 | 693 | 680 | 337 | 92% | 95% |
| 2024 | 1294 | 651 | 643 | 372 | 88% | 95% |
| City, 2024 | 979 | 487 | 492 | 53,619 | — | — |
| Queens, 2024 | 966 | 483 | 483 | 15,230 | — | — |
“Tested” is the number of students the DOE counted in that year’s average, not the size of the class. “College ready” is the share of those students who met the College Board benchmark on that section. A dash means the DOE published no figure for that year; nothing here is estimated.
Next
- Compare all 549 New York City high schools on the same figures, sortable by borough and by score.
- SAT preparation — what actually moves a score, and how far it moves in the time you have.
- Townsend Harris High School on schools.nyc.gov — the DOE’s own page for this school.
Figures from NYC Open Data — School Quality Reports, Multi-Year Metrics, New York City Department of Education. Rebuilt 2026-09-15. Method and caveats are set out on the index page.
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