Summary:
The city of East Newark, New Jersey has only one public school, the East Newark Elementary School, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. The school's performance has been consistently low, with proficiency rates well below state averages in both English Language Arts and Mathematics across all grade levels. The school's ranking has also declined over the past few years, dropping from 894 out of 1,345 elementary schools in 2021-2022 to 1,234 out of 1,338 in 2023-2024.
The East Newark Elementary School has a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, at 84.14% in the 2022-2023 school year, suggesting a high level of economic disadvantage among the student population. The school's per-student spending for the 2018-2019 school year was $10,532, slightly above the state average, and it has a relatively low student-teacher ratio of 10.8 to 1, indicating a relatively high level of staffing resources. However, the school's performance is consistently lower than both the East Newark School District and the state of New Jersey as a whole, across all grade levels and subject areas.
The data also reveals that the East Newark Elementary School had a chronic absenteeism rate of 16.6% in the 2022-2023 school year, which is significantly higher than the state average. This high chronic absenteeism rate may be a contributing factor to the school's low academic performance, as students who miss a significant amount of instructional time are less likely to achieve proficiency. Addressing the root causes of the school's challenges, such as chronic absenteeism and strengthening instructional practices, will likely require a multi-faceted approach involving collaboration with the district and state education authorities, as well as community partners.
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