Marion P. Thomas Charter School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Marion P. Thomas Charter School

Marion P. Thomas Charter School is a regular public charter school in Newark serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade on a single campus. It operates as its own district, so the school and the district are the same entity. The building sits on Sussex Avenue, in the Central Ward of New Jersey’s largest and most densely populated city.

This is a school where the student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a much smaller share of Hispanic students and very small numbers of other racial groups. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a share that is moderate for an urban charter school. Enrollment numbers show a school that is large for a single building, with a fairly even spread across elementary, middle, and high school grades. The high school side is the most populated, but the school is not top-heavy in a way that suggests a program that attracts transfers. It is a neighborhood-adjacent comprehensive charter, serving students who live in and around Newark.

Academically, the picture is mixed and worth a careful look. On state English language arts assessments, results vary notably by grade. In third grade, more than two out of five students scored proficient, and by seventh grade that figure rose to just over half, a strong result for a school serving a high-poverty city. Sixth and eighth grade ELA results landed around the high end of a third, which is respectable in context. The early elementary literacy numbers are a relative bright spot. In math, however, the story is much harder. Proficiency rates in math are low across every tested grade, dropping well below a quarter in most years and falling to single digits in fourth, sixth, and eighth grade. Science results, tested in fifth and eighth grades, are very low, with proficiency in the single digits. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits in the bottom quarter when compared to other districts in Essex County. The comparison set includes every district in the county, so this ranking puts the school well below the typical Essex County district on test performance.

The school’s charter status means it operates with more autonomy than a traditional district school, and families who choose it do so by applying, not by attendance zone. That said, no data on course access, Advanced Placement offerings, dual enrollment, or career and technical education pathways was provided, so it is not possible to say whether the high school offers advanced or specialized programming. The school website may have that detail. No graduation rate was in the data either, so a parent who wants to know how many seniors finish on time would need to ask the school directly.

Discipline data, staffing ratios, special education identification rates, and English learner counts were all absent from the data, which limits what can be said about student support systems or school climate. A family with a child who needs special education services or English language support would want to learn more from the school about how those programs are staffed and how students are identified.

Newark itself is a major employment and transportation hub, home to Prudential Financial, Rutgers University–Newark, NJIT, and several other large employers. The city has seen population growth and revitalization investment in recent decades. Housing values in the area around the school, based on zip-code-level estimates, are below the New Jersey state benchmark but above the national median. Rental costs follow a similar pattern. The school sits in a dense urban environment with transit access via bus and light rail. Newark Penn Station is a short drive away, providing regional rail connections.

This is a school that may appeal to a family seeking a single school that covers all grades from pre-K through high school in one location, and that prefers a charter environment in a dense city. The academic picture, however, is sharply uneven. Literacy results in the middle grades are the school’s clear strength, while math and science performance are areas where the school is struggling relative to the county. A parent choosing this school would likely want to understand how the school approaches math instruction and intervention, whether it offers advanced coursework at the high school level, and what the graduation rate looks like. The available data does not answer those questions.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

85-89%Cohort of 135 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

425 schools plotted. 7 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 49%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 82%

School 2% · District 2%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolMarion P. Thomas Charter School, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income50%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income35%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income50%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income51%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income39%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income26%Higher-income55%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income18%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income4%Higher-income13%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income17%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income10%Higher-income5%5 pp gap