Victor Mravlag School No. 21, Elizabeth NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Victor Mravlag School No. 21

Victor Mravlag School No. 21 is a regular public school in the Elizabeth Public Schools district, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It sits within a densely populated, highly diverse urban city that blends residential neighborhoods with major industrial and port infrastructure. The school itself is a neighborhood school in a city where schools are distributed across distinct communities rather than concentrated on a single campus. Housing in the area is expensive relative to national benchmarks, and the local market has seen home values rise in recent years, reflecting the broader regional pressure of a high-cost metro area.

The school’s student body is diverse, with a student composition that draws from a city where residents represent many countries and language groups. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school serves the full pre-K-to-8 grade span, so there is no graduation rate to report, as the school does not serve high school grades.

On the 2024-25 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, the school’s academic performance shows a notable pattern across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, the school posts solid proficiency rates in the upper elementary and middle school grades, with several grade levels reaching a level where a clear majority of students meet the state’s proficiency standard. The strongest results appear in grades six, seven, and eight, where proficiency rates are well above what one would typically expect from a school serving a high-poverty urban population. In math, the picture is more mixed. The youngest tested grade posts a relatively strong proficiency rate, but math performance declines in the middle grades, settling at a level that is lower than the school’s ELA results. Science proficiency, measured in grades five and eight, is notably low, with only a small share of students reaching the state’s standard, a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school. When placed against other districts in Union County, the school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint of the cohort, meaning its combined performance across tested subjects and grades ranks higher than the typical district in the county.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career pathway data to report. The district itself is large and urban, and the school is one of many neighborhood elementary and middle schools within it. The district’s publicly available information did not indicate any recent major changes in programming or leadership that would alter this picture.

Victor Mravlag School No. 21 fits a family looking for a neighborhood school in a dense urban setting where the older students in the building show genuine academic strength, particularly in reading and writing, and where the math and science sides of the building may need more support and attention from home. The literacy results in the middle grades are a clear strength. The science results are a soft spot that will matter to families who prioritize hands-on or inquiry-based science instruction. For those considering the school, the trajectory from early grades through middle school is worth examining: the school appears to build literacy skill well as students get older, but math proficiency does not follow the same upward path. A parent should ask how the school addresses math learning in grades four through eight and how it approaches science instruction, given the low proficiency there. The school is part of a large urban district with strong transit connections and a broad mix of housing options, though the cost of living in the area is high.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 37% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 32% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 33% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 26% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 21% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 30% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 37% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 53% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 782%

School 82% · District 56% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 877%

School 77% · District 55% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Science

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 15% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 9% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

This schoolElizabeth Public Schools, 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-income32%Higher-income49%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income55%Higher-income64%9 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income65%35 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income70%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income77%Higher-income86%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income68%Higher-income88%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income58%Higher-income64%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income41%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income54%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income39%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income52%21 pp gap