Sussex Avenue School, Newark NJ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sussex Avenue School

Sussex Avenue School is a regular public school in Newark, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It sits in the northern section of the city, in a dense, mixed-use urban environment where residential streets, commercial corridors, and industrial zones sit close together. The school is part of Newark Public School District, the largest district in New Jersey by enrollment, which operates schools across the city’s five political wards.

The school enrolls a substantial number of students for a PK-8 campus, and the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic and Black, with very small shares of white, Asian, and other racial groups. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic realities of the surrounding neighborhood. Newark itself is a city of sharp contrasts: it is the state’s largest employment center, home to major corporate headquarters, universities, and cultural institutions, and has seen significant population growth and revitalization investment in recent decades. Yet many neighborhoods remain low-income, and the district historically operated under state control until control was returned to local governance a few years ago.

On state assessments administered through the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, Sussex Avenue School’s results are low across tested subjects and grades. In mathematics, the share of students reaching proficiency declines notably from the elementary grades into middle school. In English language arts, proficiency rates are higher than in math but still modest, with a slight improvement visible by seventh and eighth grade. Science results are very low, with the eighth-grade cohort showing no students reaching the proficiency threshold in the most recent testing cycle. When compared with other districts in Essex County, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile—a meaningful measure for families evaluating academic outcomes.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, and course access were not available in the provided records. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports student attendance and what interventions are in place for students who are behind grade level.

The district that operates Sussex Avenue School has undergone notable changes in recent years. In the summer of 2026, the New Jersey Department of Education declared Newark Public Schools a High Performing District, a designation that signals sustained improvement after years of state oversight. The district has also launched a strategic plan called “The Next Decade: 2020-30,” and has opened several new career-themed high schools—focused on data science, fashion and design, global studies, architecture and interior design, and new media. These offerings are at the high school level, so they do not directly affect Sussex Avenue School, but they do shape the options available to families as their children move beyond eighth grade.

Newark’s housing market shows a wide range of prices. In the ZIP code covering the school’s area, home values are around the middle of the range for Essex County, though the city as a whole has both expensive downtown condos and more affordable older housing stock. Rents have been rising slowly, and mortgages remain a stretch for many households given the area’s median income. The city’s transit network, including bus and light rail lines and two major rail stations, makes commuting feasible for many families, and the school is likely reachable by public transportation from most parts of Newark.

For a family considering Sussex Avenue School, the picture is straightforward. This is a neighborhood school serving a high-poverty community, with academic results that fall well below county averages. The district has shown signs of progress and new high school pathways are emerging, but the school’s own test scores are a soft spot that any prospective parent would want to discuss with the principal and visit the classrooms to understand the daily instructional environment. The city itself offers many cultural and economic assets, and the ward in which the school sits has its own distinct character. There is no program data listed for this school—no magnet, no special theme, no specialized curriculum—so what a family will find is a regular, comprehensive elementary and middle school program serving its zoned attendance area.

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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 424%

School 24% · District 23% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 22% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 63%

School 3% · District 18% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 21% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 12% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 28% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 30% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 31% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 36% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 38% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 39% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 10% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 8 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.