Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6, Passaic NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6

Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6 is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Passaic, New Jersey. It sits within the Passaic City School District, a dense urban district that funds its schools through local property taxes and state aid. The school occupies a single building on Hamilton Avenue in a city defined by its tight grid of streets and long industrial history.

Passaic itself is among the most densely populated municipalities in the country, a compact city of worn commercial corridors, aging factory sites, and tight-knit residential blocks. The city’s origins as a Dutch settlement on the Passaic River gave way to 19th-century textile and metalworking mills, and remnants of that industrial base remain. In recent years, a growing Orthodox Jewish community has added new religious schools and kosher businesses, particularly in the Passaic Park section. The city’s Urban Enterprise Zone, set to expire, has helped sustain local commerce along Main Avenue. Housing in the school’s zip code is expensive relative to national averages, with median home values roughly midway between the national median and higher-cost New Jersey suburbs. Rents are high, and the area’s price-to-income ratio is stretched, making homeownership a challenge for many families. The broader county housing market shows active listings increasing, though demand has softened slightly.

The student body at Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6 is predominantly Hispanic, with a small share of Black students and very small numbers of White, Asian, and multiracial students. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the high poverty rate in the surrounding neighborhood. The school enrolls roughly several hundred students across grades PK through 8, with the largest single grade in pre-kindergarten. Class sizes are not reported in the available data, nor are counts of students with disabilities or English learners.

State assessment results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments show that proficiency rates in math are low across every tested grade, with the highest share of students meeting the state standard in fifth grade and the lowest in sixth grade. English language arts results are somewhat higher but still low overall, with sixth grade standing out as the strongest performing grade. Science results in fifth and eighth grades are very low, and no student in the eighth-grade science test scored at the proficient level. On a composite measure that averages proficiency across all tested subjects and grades, the school lands in the bottom quarter relative to other districts in Passaic County. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data, discipline records, and staffing information were not available in the data provided.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, students must transition to a high school elsewhere, likely within the Passaic City School District. The data shows no information about programs such as advanced coursework, career pathways, or enrichment offerings; a parent interested in those areas would need to ask the school directly.

This is a school that serves a high-poverty, urban community where academic attainment as measured by state tests is far below state averages. Families choosing this school will find a neighborhood school embedded in a dense, walkable city with a visible commercial core and a changing demographic landscape. The primary challenge is academic: proficiency rates point to substantial ground to make up. A parent considering this school may want to investigate what instructional supports, tutoring, or intervention programs are in place and how the school supports students who are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. The absence of program data and staffing details limits what can be said about the daily classroom experience. For a family rooted in Passaic, this school is the local option; for one weighing it against other choices, the test results and the limited information available would warrant direct dialogue with the school’s leadership.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 39%

School 9% · District 19% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 48%

School 8% · District 23% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 510%

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

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 62%

School 2% · District 18% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 75%

School 5% · District 15% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 39%

School 9% · District 22% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 414%

School 14% · District 25% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 30% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 37% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 721%

School 21% · District 39% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 41% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 14% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 6% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

This schoolPassaic City 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.