The struggles of Newark’s school system are well known. Despite all the money the district spends, about two-thirds of students are behind their grade levels in math. Reading skills fare even worse.
And the pandemic hit hard. Before COVID-19 struck, Newark students were roughly one grade level behind the national math and reading averages. Now students are more than two grade levels behind, experts say.
Still, there are encouraging signs of progress. The Education Scorecard, an annual deep dive into data about kids in grades K-12, indicates that the pace of learning has picked up, fanning hopes that a turnaround may be beginning.
Newark now ranks among the best in the nation for its academic improvements from 2022 to 2025, researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth universities found. Students in the city are learning at a rate of 1.23 grade levels per year in reading and math – above the national average of one grade level per year.
That’s also faster growth than the state average and similar New Jersey districts. It puts the city in the 93rd percentile nationally for learning rates, ranking it number 601 out of more than 8,000 districts in the U.S., which experts and Newark leaders agree is a bright spot.
The district is starting to gain ground.
Is it sustainable?
“That is really heartening to see,” said Paula White of JerseyCAN, an expert in turning around failing schools. “We are seeing some indicators that should make us optimistic, and at the same time, not lose sight of the reality that is still dire, without question.”
She and many others acknowledged the challenge that remains: Kids in Newark were behind before the pandemic hit, then fell even further. And the infusion of federal relief funds that drove improvements in many poor districts like this has since dried up, leaving experts to wonder how Newark will sustain this pace of improvement.
School board member David Daughety raised that issue at a recent meeting. How, he asked, will the district turn its faster growth pace into true grade-level proficiency for students?
“There is still a lot more that needs to be done to ensure more kids – all kids – are on grade level,” agreed Thomas Luna, a former school board candidate. The learning spurt was welcome, he said, though he cautioned: “Growing more than a year for an 8th grader doesn’t mean much if the growth puts them at a 4th grade level.”
By contrast, Union City — another North Jersey urban center — has completely bounced back. The average student in the district has caught up and even surpassed pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading, the scorecard found.
Masking deficits
Newark Superintendent Roger León did not respond to questions from NJ Spotlight News about how he plans to sustain these efforts. This includes whether the district used any of its federal pandemic relief dollars to hire additional teachers or coaches for students in the classroom, and how it will continue to fund such resources.
In a statement, district officials called it “edifying to see everyone’s hard work reflected.” They added, though, that they’re “not taking a victory lap” because the work “is not done and will continue.” Mayor Ras Baraka, a former district teacher and principal, said he was “pleased to hear of the gains” and national recognition, praising “the hard work and dedication” of school staff and families in a statement.
León has touted an “historic” 90% graduation rate for the 2024–2025 school year, but the latest data released in the state’s school report cards reveals a stark proficiency gap: Only 66% of Newark students passed the graduation proficiency test in reading, and just 31% passed in math. The rest graduated via alternative pathways, including portfolio appeals — used by 26% of Newark students in reading and 44% in math.
Critics warn that these workarounds often mask academic deficits, leaving kids unprepared and bound for remedial college courses.
“The portfolio, honestly, ends up a lot of times being used as a last resort,” White said. “A last-ditch effort to get a kid out of high school even though they may not have an academically adequate knowledge and demonstration of skill.”
Noting New Jersey’s history of stagnant test scores, White said investing in literacy and math coaches is crucial to ensure continuous academic growth, not just a temporary burst followed by a plateau. “What we want to see is ongoing movement,” she said, rather than leaving most students below grade level in reading and math.
Years to close gap
One of the scorecard’s authors, Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor, noted that academic achievement in America began to decline in 2015, five years before the pandemic hit. In New Jersey, the decline began a little later, in about 2018, he said.
The same was true of Newark. The challenge, from that long-term perspective, is daunting: If Newark students maintain their current accelerated pace of learning, it would take about four school years for them to return to the city’s pre-pandemic achievement levels, Kane calculated.
“However, that will be hard to do, now that the federal pandemic relief is gone,” he said. And it would take another four or five years beyond that to completely close the gap and match the national pre-pandemic average, he said.
“We don’t want to rest on our laurels and say: Oh well, we’re back to this better, but still really unacceptable place where we once were,” White said. “It’s really important to acknowledge our progress – but it is even more important to focus on the fact that we must make continuous improvement.”
