Lawnside School District, Lawnside NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Lawnside School District

Lawnside School District is a single-school district serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the borough of Lawnside, Camden County. Because it does not operate a high school, students in grades nine through twelve attend Haddon Heights High School in the neighboring borough under a sending-receiving arrangement. The district’s one campus on Warwick Road sits within the residential fabric of the town rather than on a separated campus, and the school is the only public educational facility in the borough.

Lawnside itself is a small, quiet community with a distinctive history. Incorporated as the first independent, self-governing African American municipality north of the Mason-Dixon line, the borough has deep roots in the Underground Railroad and civil rights movements. Landmarks such as the Peter Mott House and Mount Pisgah AME Church anchor this legacy. The town’s population has grown modestly over recent decades, and the housing market shows homeownership rates that are notably high, with a stable residential character. A parent moving here would find a compact borough with short internal distances and a strong sense of community identity, but without a separate downtown commercial district or major local employers; civic life centers on the borough hall, the school, and historic sites.

Academically, the school’s results on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments are a key consideration. Across tested grades in math, the share of students scoring at proficient or above falls in the low single digits to low twenties, depending on the grade. In English language arts, the pattern is somewhat higher but still well below state norms: the highest proficiency rate appears in eighth grade, while third grade shows a lower rate. Science results are very low. The school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quarter among Camden County’s districts, a gap a parent would want to explore further with the school. No data on chronic absenteeism or on special education and English learner populations was available, so those dimensions remain unknown from these records.

The student body reflects the community’s demographics. The large majority of students are Black, with a substantial share of Hispanic students and small numbers of white and multiracial students. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of the economic profile of the district’s families. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and Title I status was not reported.

The housing context in the surrounding area shows a market where median listing prices in Camden County have risen somewhat over the past year and where homes tend to spend about a month on the market. The county’s median household income is near the national figure, and the mortgage rate environment is typical for recent years. For families considering this area, the borough’s modest scale and historic character are likely draws, but the limited commercial amenities and the need to send children to a different district for high school are practical factors.

This school fits a family seeking a small, community-anchored school within a borough with a strong historical identity, where the elementary and middle grades are taught in a single building and where post-eighth-grade education happens outside the community. The academic results are well below district averages in the county, and a parent would want to understand what supports and interventions the school offers, as the proficiency picture is a significant challenge.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 0%

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

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 4%

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

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33%

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

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 32%

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

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

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

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 4%

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

This schoolLawnside 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 4Lower-income21%Higher-income25%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income16%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income37%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income39%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income50%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income14%Higher-income25%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income16%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income0%Higher-income0%0 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income8%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income8%Higher-income0%8 pp gap