The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hudson Elementary School
Hudson Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through third grade in Union City, a densely packed urban municipality in Hudson County. The school is part of the Union City School District, which is the primary public employer in a city that was once known as the embroidery capital of the United States and now sends many of its residents to jobs in New York City via the Lincoln Tunnel. Union City is one of the most densely populated places in the country, a tight grid of numbered streets and multi-family buildings where schools are woven into the urban fabric rather than set on suburban campuses. The school itself sits on 19th Street, embedded in that dense residential and commercial neighborhood.
Hudson Elementary is a regular public school serving prekindergarten through third grade. Because it serves only early elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the school does not administer state assessments in the earlier grades. State testing data is available only for third grade, which is the first year New Jersey administers the NJSLA. In third grade, just over half of students met the state’s proficiency standard in both math and English language arts. That overall proficiency level places the school above the midpoint among districts in Hudson County, a meaningful position given the county’s wide range of performance. The school’s proficiency index, which averages the tested subjects, sits above the median for the county’s districts.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a much smaller share of white students and even smaller shares of Asian and Black students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic context of a city where housing costs are high relative to incomes and the rental market is tight. The school enrolls roughly the size of a small elementary for its grade band, with enrollment spread across prekindergarten through third grade. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the profile, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the level of support for those populations.
Union City is an extremely dense urban environment. The city is a tight grid of numbered streets, with multi-family housing and ground-floor retail lining the main commercial corridors like Bergenline Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. Washington Park sits at the southern edge, bordering Jersey City. The city has no room to expand geographically, so growth comes through redevelopment of existing parcels. The district is in the middle of a major capital project: the Esther Salas Academy, a new building for grades seven through nine, is expected to open soon and will relieve overcrowding in the middle grades. The district also has a nationally recognized STEM magnet school, José Martí STEM Academy, which earned a Blue Ribbon award in 2022, giving families a specialized option within the public system.
Housing in the area is expensive. Home values in the zip code are high and have been rising at a pace above the national average. Rents are also high, and the typical rent exceeds the estimated monthly mortgage payment, a dynamic that reflects the tight urban market. For a family considering a move to Union City, the housing market is competitive and the school is one of several elementary options feeding into the district’s middle and high schools.
The school itself is a regular public elementary, not a charter or magnet. It serves only the earliest grades, so a child who starts here will move on to another school in the district for fourth grade and beyond. The school’s overall proficiency in third grade sits above the midpoint among districts in Hudson County, a solid result for a school serving a high-poverty population in a dense urban setting. A parent looking at this school should consider the full pathway through the district, including the new Esther Salas Academy for middle grades and the STEM magnet option at José Martí STEM Academy, to understand how the elementary years connect to what comes next.
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