School 15, Paterson NJ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on School 15

School 15 is a regular public elementary school in Paterson, serving students from prekindergarten through fifth grade. It is one of many neighborhood schools within the Paterson Public School District, a system that covers New Jersey’s third-largest municipality. The student body is sizable for an elementary-only building, with enrollment in the hundreds, and the population is heavily Hispanic, with a much smaller share of Black students and very few Asian or white students. About three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that places the school in a high-poverty context.

On the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, the school’s results are well below the state average. In math, proficiency rates across grades three, four, and five all fell in a low single-digit range if expressed as a proportion of students reaching the proficient or above threshold. English language arts scores ran similarly low, with rates in the mid-teens at best. Science testing for fifth graders showed an even smaller share of students meeting the state standard. Overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades placed School 15 in the bottom quarter of districts in Passaic County. Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data provided does not include chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or discipline figures, so those pieces of the picture are missing.

The school sits in Paterson, a dense, historically industrial city that grew around the Great Falls of the Passaic River. Once known as Silk City for its nineteenth-century silk mills, Paterson has long been a destination for immigrant communities, and its commercial corridors reflect that diversity. The city has a poverty rate that remains elevated, and while population has been edging upward after decades of decline, the economic context is one of modest redevelopment rather than boom. Paterson’s housing market shows home values in the neighborhood of the national median, and rents are a significant share of income for many households.

The Paterson Public School District recently adopted a new five-year strategic plan focused on improving student achievement and post-graduation readiness. The board also approved a budget with a property tax levy increase, the maximum allowed under the state’s cap, which will affect district residents. These district-level moves signal an effort to address long-standing challenges, but they have not yet filtered down to measurable change at the school level.

For a parent or resident considering School 15, the academic numbers are the central fact. Proficiency rates in math, reading, and science are low compared to state averages and to most other schools in Passaic County. The school environment is shaped by concentrated poverty, and the district faces familiar urban struggles. What is not visible in the available data is the nature of classroom support, the quality of instruction, or what programs might be in place to address learning gaps. A parent would want to ask the school directly about intervention strategies, English learner services, and how the new strategic plan is affecting day-to-day teaching at this particular building. Without that information, the record shows a school where the academic challenge is clear and the response to that challenge is not yet documented in public data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 23% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 20% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 15% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 22% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 27% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 24% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 10% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

This schoolPaterson 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 3Lower-income16%Higher-income16%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income8%9 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income11%Higher-income23%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income32%Higher-income25%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income22%Higher-income29%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income17%4 pp gap