Original Research by School Decision on K. Johnson D. Vaughan and M. Jackson Stem Academy
K. Johnson D. Vaughan and M. Jackson STEM Academy is a regular public high school in Elizabeth, part of the Elizabeth Public Schools district. The school serves grades nine through twelve and has a substantial enrollment for a high school. Its student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a much smaller share of Black students and a very small number of White and Asian students. The school is located on South Broad Street in Elizabeth, a densely populated urban city that serves as the Union County seat. The city blends residential neighborhoods with major retail centers like The Mills at Jersey Gardens and heavy industrial infrastructure centered on the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal and Newark Liberty International Airport. Elizabeth is highly diverse, with residents from many countries, and has strong transit connectivity through two NJ Transit rail stations and extensive bus service. The city has seen significant population growth and economic development over recent decades, and its housing market is active, with home values that sit above the national benchmark but slightly below the state average for New Jersey. Rents have been rising, and the area has a moderately high demand score relative to supply.
Academically, state testing data for the school is not available. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades, which would allow for a comparison with other Union County high schools, could not be reported, meaning there is no standardized academic performance measure for this school at this time. Similarly, the four-year graduation rate and the chronic absenteeism rate are both missing from the data. Because the academic context is essentially a blank field, a parent cannot use typical statewide benchmarks to assess this school's performance. It is worth noting that the absence of testing data for a high school in New Jersey is notable; state assessments are administered at the high school level, so this gap is not explained by an untested grade band. A parent looking to understand academic outcomes at Vaughan and Jackson STEM Academy would need to seek this information directly from the school or the district.
The school's name signals a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, though specific information about program offerings, course access, or STEM pathways was not included in the available data. There is also no information on staffing, discipline rates, attendance, or special populations such as students with disabilities or English learners. The district itself did not produce any recent changes or strategic priorities in the search results, so the broader context of what is happening in Elizabeth Public Schools is thin.
For a family considering this school, the strongest pieces of information are demographic and geographic. The student body is large and overwhelmingly Hispanic, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high-needs population. The school sits in a city with a strong industrial and port-based economy, good transit links to New York City, and a housing market that is somewhat expensive relative to the nation but slightly more affordable than the rest of New Jersey. Without academic data, the decision to enroll here would depend heavily on a family's direct experience with the school's STEM programs, its climate and culture, and how it prepares students for postsecondary opportunities. The absence of standard performance metrics means that this school cannot be easily compared to others in Union County on the usual measures, and a parent should treat this as a substantial information gap worth investigating further through direct outreach to the school administration.
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