The top reported proficiency rate is 25% in Math. The lowest is 18% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Burch Charter School of Excellence
Burch Charter School of Excellence is a public charter school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Irvington, a densely populated township in Essex County, New Jersey. It is a regular school, not a magnet or alternative program. With a student body that is overwhelmingly Black and includes a small Hispanic share, the school enrolls just over three hundred children across six elementary grades. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, signaling a student population with high economic need.
Because the school stops at fifth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to consider. State testing data for grades three through five is available from New Jersey’s NJSLA assessments, and the picture is clear: proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science are low compared to state averages. In third-grade math, for example, about a quarter of students met the proficient or advanced benchmark; in fourth-grade math the share was about one in five; in fifth-grade math it was roughly one in four. ELA results follow a similar pattern, with third graders at about one in four proficient, fourth graders near three in ten, and fifth graders below one in five. Fifth-grade science proficiency was also about one in five. When measured across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the lowest quarter of districts in Essex County. A parent considering this school should be aware that academic outcomes are significantly below the county median; the source of those outcomes may be related to the high level of student poverty, but the data does not provide firm causal explanation. There is no multi-year trend data available to see whether scores are improving.
The school environment section carries notable gaps. Information on chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, staffing ratios, and course access was not provided. Similarly, special education identification and English learner counts are missing from the data we examined. Families may want to ask the school directly about class sizes, teacher turnover, and the availability of supports for students with disabilities or language needs. The school does not have a Title I status listed, though given the high share of low-income students it almost certainly receives federal Title I funding.
Housing in the area where the school sits carries a median home value above four hundred thousand dollars, with annual appreciation above the national average. Rents have been roughly flat year over year. The national mortgage rate in mid-2026 is slightly above six and a half percent. This context matters for families deciding whether to move into the attendance zone or rent; Irvington itself has a high property tax rate, which was among the highest in New Jersey when last reported.
Irvington is a compact, heavily developed township of about nine square miles, with a majority Black and Latino population. The central business district around the Irvington Bus Terminal was designated a transit village, meaning state incentives are available for revitalization. The bus terminal connects residents to Newark and New York via multiple NJ Transit routes. The township has an Urban Enterprise Zone that offers a reduced sales tax rate to encourage commerce; that designation expires in the spring of 2027. Irvington was historically one of New Jersey’s Abbott districts, now known as SDA districts, meaning the state covers school construction and renovation costs. The Irvington Public Schools, the district that oversees Burch Charter School of Excellence, operate a dozen schools across the township. The charter school itself is located on Linden Avenue in a residential area.
The district brief turned up little in the way of recent major changes or strategic initiatives that would affect a current or prospective family. The school appears to offer a straightforward elementary program with no exceptional academic pathways or signature programs reported. For families weighing options within Irvington, Burch Charter School of Excellence presents as a small elementary charter serving a high-needs population; the core academic results are below average, and the lack of data on student support services is a gap worth filling through direct inquiry.
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