Ivy Hill Elementary School, Newark NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Ivy Hill Elementary School

Ivy Hill Elementary School is a regular public school in the Newark Public School District, serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It occupies a building on Ivy Street in the city’s West Ward, a dense residential section of a city that combines major industrial and commercial functions with distinct neighborhood identities. The school is one of many elementary-and-middle combinations within a district that, after a long period of state oversight, was declared a High Performing District by the New Jersey Department of Education in mid-2026, a publicly reported milestone that families evaluating the district may weigh.

The student body is drawn overwhelmingly from the surrounding neighborhood. The composition is one that families should consider as a plain characteristic: the large majority of students are Black, with a much smaller share identifying as Hispanic, and very small numbers from other racial groups. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the provided records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

State test results from the NJSLA assessments present an uneven profile, and this is where a clear-eyed view matters most. In English language arts, the school shows genuine strength. Across grades three through eight, proficiency rates are consistently above the midpoint, with sixth grade reaching a level that would stand out in most settings. This pattern suggests that the school’s literacy instruction, reading intervention, or writing programs are working well for a meaningful portion of the student body.

In mathematics and science, the picture is much weaker. Math proficiency rates are low across every tested grade, and they decline markedly as students get older, falling to a very low level by eighth grade. Science proficiency in both tested grades, fifth and eighth, is also very low. Parents should understand that a student who moves through Ivy Hill may enter high school with significant gaps in math and science foundational skills. The overall proficiency index, which averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, places the school below the midpoint relative to other districts in Essex County. A family for whom math and science preparation is a priority will want to look into this further with the school and understand what remediation or support is available.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and there is no data on chronic absenteeism. The school’s participation rates in state testing were also missing from the available data, a gap a parent may want to clarify.

No information was provided about programs such as art, music, gifted education, or after-school offerings. Newark Public Schools has recently established several career-themed high schools across the city, so by the time an Ivy Hill student reaches ninth grade, there are specialized options to consider. That pathway planning, however, happens at the district rather than the school level.

Housing in the zip code shows home values roughly in line with the national median, while rental costs are moderate relative to the broader Newark region. The county housing market has a high number of active and pending listings, though the median listing price in Essex County is notably above the national benchmark, reflecting the region’s overall cost pressures. For a family considering moving into the attendance zone, these figures are part of the broader urban housing picture.

Ivy Hill is a school where a parent can expect solid literacy instruction and a neighborhood environment that serves a predominantly Black student population from a low-income community. The test results in math and science are low, and that is a straightforward, material consideration. A family choosing this school will want to ask what specific interventions exist in those subjects, how the school supports students who arrive below grade level in math, and what enrichment options are available for students who are performing well.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 28% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 23% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 22% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 617%

School 17% · District 18% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 21%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 2 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 341%

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

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 30% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 31% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 36% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 38% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 39% · ▲ 19 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 10% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 6% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 1 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 5Lower-income54%Higher-income60%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income0%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income20%0 pp gap