New York mayor Bill de Blasio entered office in January 2014, promising to "take dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities … [and] put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love." The Manhattan Institute's "Poverty and Progress in New York" series tracks the effects of Mayor de Blasio's policies on lower-income New Yorkers. This paper, the 12th installment, examines progress during 2015-16 in English language arts (ELA) and in math on the Common Core-aligned New York State Assessment Program, which covers nearly half a million students in grades 3-8 in the city's traditional public schools (i.e., non-charter schools).