Speedway Avenue School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Speedway Avenue School

Speedway Avenue School is a regular public school in Newark, New Jersey, serving students from prekindergarten 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 July 2026, a notable milestone after years of state oversight. The district has also been expanding career-themed high school options, though Speedway Avenue School itself covers only the elementary and middle grades.

The school sits in a dense urban setting. Newark is New Jersey’s largest city, a major employment center with a mix of corporate headquarters, universities, port and airport operations, and a strong transit network. The neighborhood around Speedway Avenue School is primarily residential, with the city’s five wards each having distinct character. The school is located on South Orange Avenue, a thoroughfare that runs through the city’s South and West wards. Housing values in the area are moderate relative to the county, and the rental market is active, typical of a city with high demand and a mix of older housing stock and ongoing revitalization.

The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population and a very small share of students from other racial backgrounds. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need. The school serves a balanced range of grades, with enrollments spread fairly evenly across PK through eighth grade, each grade housing about fifty to seventy students.

State testing results from the most recent year show that overall academic proficiency is low, placing Speedway Avenue School in the bottom quartile relative to all districts in Essex County. In English language arts, the share of students meeting the state’s proficiency standard varies by grade, with the highest rates in third and fifth grade and a noticeable drop in the upper middle grades. In math, proficiency is consistently well below the county median, and it declines sharply from sixth grade onward, with eighth grade showing the lowest performance. Science results are weak too, with nearly all fifth graders and every tested eighth grader scoring below the proficiency bar. These are concrete indicators that a family considering this school should look into further, especially around how the school supports students who are behind grade level, particularly in math and science as they move into middle school.

The school does not offer high school programs, so there is no graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism and discipline were not available in the information we reviewed. The district’s strategic plan, “The Next Decade: 2020-30,” is in place, but specific initiatives at Speedway Avenue School were not described.

For a parent or resident, Speedway Avenue School offers a neighborhood option within a large urban district that has recently gained state recognition for overall improvement. The school’s academic results, however, are a serious concern, especially in middle school math and science. A family weighing this school would want to understand what interventions and supports are in place, how the school is addressing the low proficiency rates, and what the pathway to high school looks like given the district’s new career-themed high schools. The school’s size is moderate for its grade band, and its student composition reflects the broader community. The urban setting means access to Newark’s cultural institutions, transit, and employment centers, but also the challenges that come with a high-poverty district. The data does not tell us about staffing, class sizes, or program offerings, so those are natural questions to raise with the school directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 28% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 23% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 22% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 67%

School 7% · District 18% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 21% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 82%

School 2% · District 12% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 28% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 30% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 31% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 36% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 38% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 39% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 10% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 6% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 5 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.