The top reported proficiency rate is 29% in Math. The lowest is 24% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Grade Downing Elementary School
Grade Downing Elementary School serves the earliest years of public education in Runnemede, a small, primarily residential borough in Camden County. The school enrolls students from kindergarten through third grade, and its size reflects that narrow grade band. Runnemede itself is a suburban community where single-family homes line residential streets and commercial activity follows highway corridors, particularly the Black Horse Pike. The borough has seen a slow population decline over recent decades, and its housing stock is mostly owner-occupied. There is no traditional downtown; municipal offices sit along the main commercial road, and the school is located within a residential neighborhood. A notable local employer is Mister Softee, the ice cream truck franchiser, which has been headquartered in Runnemede for some time.
Grade Downing is one of three elementary schools in the Runnemede Public School District, and the district also includes a school serving grades four through eight. For high school, Runnemede students attend Triton Regional High School, which is part of the Black Horse Pike Regional School District and located outside the borough. The district did not report any recent changes of lasting impact to parents in the materials reviewed.
The student body is predominantly White, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Black, and Asian students, and a very small number of students of two or more races and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander background. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school’s grade band means that no high school measures such as a graduation rate apply here, and the school does not serve tested grades beyond third, so the academic picture rests on a single year of state assessment results for third graders.
On the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, third graders at Grade Downing posted proficiency rates that were below the midpoint among Camden County schools with comparable data. In math, about a quarter of tested students met the state’s proficiency standard. In English language arts, the share was slightly lower. These are the only tested subjects and grades available for the school, and the cohort tested was modest. A parent considering the school will want to look into how the school’s early-grade instruction is structured and what support is available for students who are not yet meeting benchmarks, particularly because the school’s grade span ends before the grades where state testing begins in most other subjects.
Because the school serves only kindergarten through third grade, many typical school metrics are not available. There is no reported data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, or staffing ratios. Information on special education and English learner populations was also not present in the data reviewed. The school is a regular public school; it is not a charter or magnet, and its Title I status was not reported.
The housing market in the area shows a median home value that sits below both the New Jersey state benchmark and the national benchmark for similar recent periods. Active listings in Camden County have increased noticeably, and the median listing price has risen moderately. Homes are staying on the market for a bit longer than a year ago, suggesting a market that has cooled some but remains active. The area’s affordability relative to the national median price-to-income ratio is a factor some families may weigh.
Grade Downing Elementary School fits a family looking for a small, neighborhood-based start to their child’s education within a stable, suburban borough. The key academic data point is a set of third-grade results that fall below the midpoint of Camden County, and the school does not serve grades where additional testing or program offerings might round out the picture. A parent may want to ask the school directly about early literacy and math intervention, class sizes, and how the school prepares students for the upper elementary grades they will enter at Mary E. Volz Elementary and Middle School.
See more original research from School Decision →