The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Veterans' Memorial Elementary School
Veterans' Memorial Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Union City, a densely packed urban municipality on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, just west of Hoboken. The school is part of the Union City School District, a system that is in the middle of a notable capital expansion with the upcoming Esther Salas Academy, a middle-grade facility expected to open soon, and that also includes a nationally recognized STEM magnet school at the upper level. For a family considering the elementary years, the district context matters because students from Veterans' Memorial will feed into a system that is actively building new capacity and has invested in specialized academic pathways.
The families in this attendance zone live in one of the most densely populated cities in the country, a place where the street grid is tight and multi-family housing with ground-floor retail is the norm. There is no suburban campus here; the school sits within the urban fabric, and the surrounding neighborhood is almost entirely Hispanic, a fact that is fully reflected in the student body. The overwhelming share of students at Veterans' Memorial are Hispanic, and a very high proportion qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. This is a school serving a community with significant economic need, and the enrollment is large for an elementary school, with class sizes that trend larger in the upper grades.
Academic performance on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments shows a mixed picture that a parent will want to examine grade by grade. In English language arts, fourth graders posted a result that is a clear strength, with a majority of students meeting proficiency standards, and fifth graders also performed at a respectable level. Third grade ELA was lower, with roughly a third of students proficient, which is a softer spot. In math, no grade reached a majority proficient. Fourth grade came closest, at just under half, while third and fifth grades both hovered in the low-to-mid thirties. The science results for fifth grade were notably low, a point a parent may want to ask the school about directly, because that subject is tested only once at this level and the proficiency rate was well below the other subjects.
Compared to other districts in Hudson County, the overall proficiency index for Veterans' Memorial falls below the midpoint. That comparison places it in the context of a county with a wide range of outcomes, from very low to very high, and the school lands in the lower half of that spread. This is not a school with a strong reputation for high test scores, and a family looking for a top-quartile academic driver in the elementary years would need to weigh that. However, the school does not serve a high school population, so there is no graduation rate to evaluate, and data on chronic absenteeism was not available, which is a gap that limits a full view of student engagement.
The educational approach at Veterans' Memorial is that of a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. There was no detailed information available about specific programs, enrichment offerings, or staffing ratios, so a family should contact the school directly to learn about art, music, physical education, and any support services for English learners or students with disabilities. Given the demographic profile, it is reasonable to assume the school offers English as a second language programming, but the data did not confirm that. A parent may also want to ask about class size and teacher experience, as those details were not part of the available record.
Housing in the area is expensive by national standards, with home values and rents that have been rising. The estimated monthly mortgage cost on a typical home would be higher than the average rent, suggesting that buying requires a significant financial commitment. The national unemployment rate has been relatively stable, and median household income nationally has trended up, but those are broad figures and may not reflect local conditions in Union City specifically.
For a family already living in Union City, Veterans' Memorial is the neighborhood elementary school, and the district is investing in the future with new facilities and a STEM magnet option that will eventually be available to graduates. For a family moving to the area, the test scores and the comparison to other county schools are points to investigate further, especially if academic performance in math and science at the elementary level is a primary concern. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged, which shapes the peer environment and the support needs of the school. This is a school where the community is tight-knit, urban, and working-class, and where the district is actively building for the next generation, even if the current state assessment results give a parent reasons to ask questions.
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