Chews Elementary School, Blackwood NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Chews Elementary School

Chews Elementary School serves students from preschool through fifth grade as part of the Gloucester Township Public Schools district in Blackwood, New Jersey. The school sits within an unincorporated community that mixes residential neighborhoods with commercial stretches, where the main campus of Camden County College is a prominent local anchor. Blackwood’s population has changed little in recent years, and the area offers several parks and a historic district along the Black Horse Pike. A parent moving into the attendance zone will find a straightforward suburban setting.

The student body is diverse. A substantial share of students identify as white, while the remainder includes students who are Hispanic, Black, Asian, multiracial, or from other backgrounds. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school at a moderate level of economic need relative to many New Jersey elementary schools. The enrollment is large for a school serving these grades, with a full complement of classes from kindergarten through fifth grade plus a pre-K program.

On state assessments administered through the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, Chews Elementary’s results show a pattern in which reading proficiency rates fell consistently below half of tested students across grades three through five. Math proficiency rates were a mixed picture: they hovered near the high end of the range for grade three, while dipping somewhat for grades four and five. Science proficiency at grade five was the weakest subject, with a small share of students meeting the state’s standard. When compared with other schools across Camden County, Chews Elementary’s combined proficiency across all tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint among its peers. The school is a regular public elementary school with no charter or magnet designation, and no Title I status information was available to indicate additional federal support.

Several pieces of information that would help round out a parent’s picture are missing. Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not part of the record. Staffing ratios, special education and English learner counts, and course access offerings were also absent. Parents who want to know the daily classroom environment, the level of individualized support, or how the school addresses behavior and attendance would need to ask the school directly. The district’s publicly available reporting did not show any recent major changes in policy or programming that could be confirmed from the search materials.

The housing context may matter to a family weighing Chews Elementary against other options. In the broader Camden County market, homes are moving at a brisk pace, with median listing prices above the national benchmark but below the New Jersey state average. Rents are a meaningful share of local household income, and mortgage rates nationally have stayed elevated, so affordability is a real consideration. The Blackwood area itself has a homeownership rate in line with typical suburban communities.

A family considering Chews Elementary should understand this as a school where academic proficiency rates are softer than the county median, particularly in science, and where the overall tested performance sits in the lower half among Camden County districts. The school serves a large, diverse enrollment in a community that is stable and suburban. For a parent looking for a neighborhood school with moderate economic diversity and a sizable student body, Chews fits that description. A parent with high expectations for above-average test scores should look into the school’s academic supports, enrichment offerings, and the classroom experience directly, because the state testing data alone does not point to a strong academic profile.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 46% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 38% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 35% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 35% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 41% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 44% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 17%

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

This schoolGloucester Township 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-income23%Higher-income47%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income48%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income49%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income53%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income46%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income48%20 pp gap