Belmont Runyon Elementary School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Belmont Runyon Elementary School

Belmont Runyon Elementary School is a regular public school in Newark’s South Ward, serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Newark Public School District, the largest district in New Jersey’s most populous city. The school’s enrollment tilts heavily Black, with a substantial Hispanic minority and very small shares of white, Asian, and other racial groups. About three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of concentrated poverty that families will want to weigh when considering the level of need the school works with every day.

State testing results across math, English language arts, and science are consistently low. In math, the share of students scoring proficient ranges from roughly one in four in third grade down to about one in fifteen in seventh grade. ELA proficiency is somewhat higher but still reaches only about a quarter of tested students in fourth and sixth grades, with lower rates in other grades. Science results are especially thin, with fewer than one in ten fifth- and eighth-graders scoring proficient. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, places it in the bottom quartile among Essex County districts. This is not a school that posts strong academic numbers on state assessments, and a parent considering it should look closely at how the school supports students who are behind grade level.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism, special education identification, or English learner services was available in the materials reviewed, which is a gap a prospective family may want to fill by speaking with the school directly. Information about course offerings, extracurricular programs, or career-themed pathways was also absent from the data provided; the school’s website and a visit would be the best way to learn what is available beyond core instruction.

Newark itself is a dense, mixed-use city of more than three hundred thousand residents, with a downtown core of office towers, universities, and cultural institutions including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Prudential Center. The city’s economy is anchored by major corporate headquarters, the Port Newark–Elizabeth marine terminal, and Newark Liberty International Airport. The district recently drew attention when the New Jersey Department of Education declared Newark Public Schools a High Performing District in mid-2026, marking a milestone after years of state oversight. That designation applies to the district as a whole and reflects system-level improvements; it does not speak directly to the performance of any one school.

Housing in the ZIP code covering the school has a median value near the national median, with rents somewhat above typical levels elsewhere in the country, though both have been drifting slightly downward recently. The community remains a solidly urban setting with walkable streets, frequent transit, and a grid pattern that connects residential blocks to downtown.

Belmont Runyon is a neighborhood elementary and middle school serving a high-poverty population in a large city district. The academic results are low by state and county standards, and the lack of available data on programs and support services means a family choosing this school will want to seek out firsthand information about classroom instruction, intervention strategies, and enrichment opportunities. For families rooted in the South Ward who value a walk-to-school option and a full pre-K through eighth-grade span in one building, it may be a practical fit, but the academic picture is one that merits close inquiry.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 28% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 23% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 22% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 18% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 76%

School 6% · District 21% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 88%

School 8% · District 12% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 28% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 30% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 31% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 36% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 38% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 39% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 10% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolNewark Public 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-income25%Higher-income36%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income28%Higher-income21%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income6%Higher-income27%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income8%Higher-income7%1 pp gap