Mary J Donohoe Community School, Bayonne NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Mary J Donohoe Community School

Mary J Donohoe Community School is a regular public school in the Bayonne School District, serving students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is one of the school options within Bayonne, a dense, mixed-use urban city on a peninsula in Hudson County. The school’s enrollment is in the middle range for a K-8 building, and a substantial share of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic diversity of the surrounding community. The student body itself is diverse: the largest group is white students, followed by a significant Hispanic population, a smaller but present Black population, an Asian population, and small numbers of students who are Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or of two or more races.

Academically, the picture is mixed and worth a close look. In English language arts, the school’s results show a pattern of improvement as students move through the grades. Proficiency rates in the lower elementary grades are in a modest range, but by fourth grade the rate rises to a level that is a clear strength. That momentum largely holds through the middle grades, with proficiency rates in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade all showing solid results. The eighth grade ELA rate dips a bit but remains in a range many families would find reasonably strong. Math tells a different story. Proficiency in math is lower than in ELA across all grades, and it declines sharply in the upper grades. Rates in third through sixth grade are in a range that sits not far from the midpoint, but in seventh and eighth grade they become quite weak. This drop-off in middle school math is something a parent may want to discuss with the school. Science results are reported for fifth and eighth grade. The fifth grade rate is low, and the eighth grade rate is very low. The pattern across these subjects suggests that the school’s academic strength lies in literacy, while math and science call for families to look into what support is available.

The school serves prekindergarten through eighth grade, so it does not have a high school graduation rate to report. It also does not serve tested high school grades, so no data for subjects like Algebra I or high school science appear here. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across all tested grades and subjects, places Donohoe above the midpoint among the districts in Hudson County. That relative position is shaped more by the stronger ELA results than by math or science.

Basic information about the school’s programs, disciplinary environment, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism was not available in the data provided. A parent may want to ask the school directly about what arts, enrichment, or extracurricular options exist, especially since the school serves students through eighth grade and those middle years are a time when such offerings often matter to families. The school’s setting in Bayonne means students are part of a dense urban environment with a grid street pattern, a light rail line, and a commercial corridor along Broadway. The housing market in the area reflects a typical urban New Jersey market, with home values and rents that are moderately elevated relative to national benchmarks. The district itself did not have recent publicly reported changes or strategic priorities that were surfaced in the brief, so a parent looking for near-term plans or facility updates may want to check the district’s own communications directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 42% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 43% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 31% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 33% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 31% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 21% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 53% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 50% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 58% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 58% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 58% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 22% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 11% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

This schoolBayonne School District, 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-income36%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income71%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income60%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income52%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income60%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income63%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income57%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income58%37 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income56%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income38%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income20%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income14%Higher-income35%21 pp gap