Atlantic Community Charter School, Galloway NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Atlantic Community Charter School

Atlantic Community Charter School is a public charter school in Galloway, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates as a regular school within a single-school charter district, meaning there is no larger district structure above it. The school draws from the surrounding township, which is a large, car-dependent area with a mix of residential subdivisions, highway commercial corridors, and protected Pinelands forest. Stockton University is nearby, and the community has been steadily growing, though development is constrained by the Pinelands reserve.

The student body is of moderate size for a K-8 charter. The demographic makeup is predominantly Black, with a substantial share of Hispanic students and very small proportions of White, Asian, and multiracial students. A very high share of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a high-poverty context. This shapes the peer environment and the kinds of support families may need.

State testing results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment show a clear pattern. In mathematics, proficiency rates are low across all tested grades, with only a small fraction of students reaching the proficient level in any grade. This is a consistent soft spot that a parent would want to ask the school about directly, particularly what math interventions or supports are in place. In English language arts, the picture is more mixed. In the early elementary grades, proficiency is very low, but it rises steadily through the upper grades. By seventh and eighth grade, more than two in five students score proficient, which is a meaningful strength and suggests that the school’s literacy instruction may be more effective in the later years. Science proficiency at fifth grade is low, and at eighth grade no students tested proficient. Overall, when combining all subjects and grades, the school’s proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Atlantic County. This is a straightforward measure of where the school stands academically among its neighbors.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, special education classification, English learner status, and discipline are not available in the provided records, so those dimensions of student support cannot be characterized here. The school’s website and leadership would be the next stop for a parent who wants to understand those areas.

Galloway itself offers a moderate-cost housing environment. Home values are below the statewide median for New Jersey but close to national levels, and rents are similarly positioned. The township’s large land area means schools are spread across separate campuses, and daily life requires a car. The charter school is located on New York Road, a commercial corridor. There is no traditional downtown; civic and retail activity is strung along highways. The nearby university contributes some campus life, but the overall setting is suburban and auto-oriented.

This is a school serving a high-poverty community, and its test results reflect the challenges that often come with that context. The math scores are a particular concern. The improvement in ELA through the middle grades is a positive sign worth noting. A family considering this school will want to investigate what academic supports, enrichment, and student services exist beyond what the state test data shows. The school’s charter status means it operates with some autonomy from the traditional district structure, and the lack of a high school means that families will need to plan for the transition to ninth grade in another setting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 14%

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

Grade 43%

School 3% · District 3%

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

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

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

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 8%

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

Grade 78%

School 8% · District 8%

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

Grade 83%

School 3% · District 3%

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

English language arts

Grade 35%

School 5% · District 5%

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

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 18%

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 30%

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 0%

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

This schoolAtlantic 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.