Whitney E. Houston Academy, East Orange NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Whitney E. Houston Academy

Whitney E. Houston Academy is a regular public school in the East Orange School District, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is a neighborhood school in a dense urban-suburban city with a Transit Village designation, where walkable station-area neighborhoods and direct rail service to Manhattan shape daily life. For a family considering this school, the immediate context is a city that describes itself as a quintessential city for urban renewal, with multiple commercial corridors rather than a single downtown core, and a housing market that has seen modest home value declines alongside rising rents.

The school enrolls a small student body for its grade band. Demographically, the student population is predominantly Black, with a Hispanic share that is a significant minority; very small shares of other racial groups are represented. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which means the school serves a majority low-income population. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source material.

Academic performance on state assessments shows a clear pattern that a parent will want to examine closely. In English language arts, the school’s strongest subject, proficiency rates sit above the midpoint in the early elementary grades, dip in the middle grades, and then recover somewhat in eighth grade, where a little more than half of students met the bar. In math, the picture is weaker. Proficiency rates decline steadily as students advance, starting at a modest level in third grade and falling further by eighth grade, where only a small share of students scored proficient. Science results are especially low in both tested grades, with a very small share of students reaching proficiency in fifth grade and an even smaller share in eighth grade. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across all tested subjects and grades, places it below the midpoint among districts in Essex County. A parent moving to the district should ask the school directly about its strategies for supporting math and science achievement, particularly in the upper grades.

Because Whitney E. Houston Academy ends at eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. Students who continue through the East Orange district will move on to the city’s high schools after eighth grade. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent changes or initiatives, so a parent should contact the district office for information on any new programs, facility updates, or curriculum shifts.

The school environment section had no data on course access, staffing ratios, attendance, or discipline. This is a significant gap for a family trying to understand class sizes, enrichment offerings, and school climate. A parent will want to schedule a visit and ask the principal directly about these dimensions.

The housing market in the school’s zip code shows a modest decline in home values year over year, while rents have edged up slightly. County-level data indicates a relatively active market with homes staying on the market for about a month, and median listing prices have held steady or dipped slightly. The affordability picture suggests that for a typical household, renting is cheaper than buying at current mortgage rates.

For a parent looking at Whitney E. Houston Academy, the core takeaway is a pre-K-through-8 school in a transit-connected city where the elementary grades show some strength in reading, but math and science performance weakens as students move through the grades. The lack of data on special populations, staffing, and discipline means the school’s full picture requires a direct conversation with the school leadership. The school serves a majority low-income population in a city that is investing in urban renewal, and the surrounding housing market is affordable relative to much of Essex County.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 31% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 22% · ▲ 20 pts above district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 20%

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

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 13% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 13% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 9% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 32% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 40% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 41% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 33% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 34% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 11% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 82%

School 2% · District 4% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

This schoolEast Orange 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-income38%Higher-income52%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income64%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income50%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income48%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income43%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income48%Higher-income58%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income38%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income46%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income25%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income12%Higher-income10%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income13%Higher-income35%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income8%3 pp gap