New Horizons Community Charter School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on New Horizons Community Charter School

New Horizons Community Charter School is a charter public school in Newark's Central Ward, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. It is not a traditional neighborhood school; it is an independently operated public school that families choose through a lottery process. The school is relatively small, with an enrollment that is concentrated in the upper elementary and middle school grades. As a charter school, it operates as its own district, meaning the school's leadership has direct control over curriculum, staffing, and budget, separate from the much larger Newark Public Schools system.

The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Federal civil rights data on the share of students with disabilities or English learners was not available in the data provided, so a parent looking at this school may want to ask the school directly about its special education and English language learner programs and supports.

On state assessments, the school's results are mixed and warrant a close look. In English language arts, performance was a bright spot in eighth grade, where about half of students met the state's proficiency benchmark. In the lower and middle grades, the share of students reaching that mark was lower, with the weakest results in fifth grade and a modest recovery in sixth and seventh grades. Math results were consistently low across all tested grade levels, with only a small fraction of students scoring proficient, and the numbers declined as students moved into middle school. Science results, tested in fifth and eighth grades, were also low. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index placed it in the bottom quartile among districts in Essex County, which is the comparison set used here.

A parent considering this school should weigh the eighth-grade ELA outcome against the pattern of low math and science results, and ask what intervention and support systems are in place for students who are behind. The school recently built expansions to add middle school grades, and it has established partnerships with outside organizations to provide clinical mental health support, a resource that many families in Newark would find meaningful.

Newark itself is New Jersey's most populous city and a dense, mixed-use urban center. It is a major employment hub with a large concentration of corporate headquarters, a major port and airport, and several universities. The city's housing market reflects its dense urban character, with home values and rents that are well below the state median but slightly above the national median. A family weighing this school should consider the commute to the Hayes Street location, the availability of after-school programming, and how the school's academic record fits the child's needs. The school exits at the end of eighth grade, so families also need a plan for high school, whether through the lottery, a magnet, or a private school. The data reviewed here does not include a high school grade band, so there is no graduation rate to report. This is not a weakness; the school simply does not serve those grades.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 11%

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

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 20%

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

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

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

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

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

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

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 4%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolNew Horizons Community 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.