Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School

Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School is a regular public school in Newark’s North Ward, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Newark Public School District, a system that the New Jersey Department of Education declared a High Performing District in 2026, a notable shift from its earlier history of state oversight. The school itself sits in a dense, mixed-use urban setting, one of many neighborhood schools distributed across the city’s five wards.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black population and a very small share of white, Asian, and multiracial students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic context of the surrounding community. The school serves a full pre-K-through-eighth-grade span, which means a child can attend Horton from the earliest grades through the end of middle school without changing buildings.

On state assessments, the school’s proficiency rates in math and English language arts are below the midpoint among districts in Essex County, placing in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above varied by grade, with the highest rates in the lower elementary grades and a notable drop in the middle grades. In English language arts, the pattern was similar: the highest proficiency rates appeared in third and eighth grade, while the middle grades showed lower rates. Science results were very low, with no students reaching proficiency in fifth grade and a very small share in eighth grade. These are the school’s own results, and a parent may want to discuss with the school how it supports students who are below grade level, particularly in the middle grades where the drop-off is most visible.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, special education identification, and English learner services were not available in the source material, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

The school is located in Newark’s North Ward, a dense residential section of a city that is itself the state’s largest employment center, with a deep network of transit, universities, hospitals, and corporate headquarters. Housing values in the zip code are below the national median, and rents are moderate relative to incomes, reflecting the city’s broad range of housing stock. The district has recently been recognized as a High Performing District by the state, a designation that may matter to families considering Newark schools. The district has also launched several new career-themed high schools, though Horton itself ends at eighth grade, so families will need to consider high school options separately. The school’s proficiency results are low relative to other Essex County districts, and a parent should expect to engage actively with the school about academic support, particularly in the middle grades where the numbers are weakest.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 23% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 22% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 18% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 21% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 3 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 326%

School 26% · District 28% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 30% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 31% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 36% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 38% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 826%

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

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

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 10% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 82%

School 2% · District 6% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below 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 7Lower-income20%Higher-income8%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income19%Higher-income23%4 pp gap