NCES CCD 2024-25 22 schools NJ

Best-Resourced Schools in Passaic, NJ

Compiled from official source data by .

22 public K-12 schools in Passaic from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
22
Schools
14,658
Students
45.7/100
Avg Resource Index
12.7:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Passaic has more public-school enrollment than 88% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Passaic sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

10 of Passaic's 22 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

Economic need crosses separate district systems

94.3% of enrollment in reporting Passaic schools is eligible for free lunch, while the city list spans 3 districts. That pairing makes a citywide average especially easy to misread: the need measure follows students, but staffing decisions, calendars, program rules, and federal allocations are administered through separate district structures. The 54-point gap between Abraham Lincoln School Number 24 and Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25 shows how much reported resource capacity can vary inside the same municipal label. Compare schools within the same district first, then use the city view to see how those local systems differ.

City enrollment
Top 12%
School count
Top 13%
Resource Index average
73rd percentile
Teacher staffing
82nd percentile

Passaic High School No. 12 accounts for 16.9% of all Passaic public-school enrollment

That concentration means Passaic-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Passaic school enrollment varies 42× across entities

Passaic school enrollment ranges from 59 students (lowest) to 2,484 students (highest), a spread of 2,425 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme heterogeneity inside a single city, with small specialty programs listed alongside large comprehensive campuses. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Passaic reports 94.3% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share is above 87.5%, so economic need is widespread across the measured student population. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Passaic student-teacher ratio is 12.7:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Abraham Lincoln School Number 24 68
2. Hope Academy 66
3. Muhammad Ali School Number 23 63
4. Ulysses S. Grant School No. 7 63
5. Vincent Capuana School No. 15 60
6. Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering 55
7. Mario Drago School No. 3 52
8. Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy School No. 20 50
9. Casimir Pulaski School No. 8 47
10. Passaic Preparatory Academy 46
11. Thomas Jefferson School No. 1 46
12. Etta Gero School No. 9 46
13. Daniel F. Ryan Elementary School No. 19 43
14. Passaic High School No. 12 41
15. William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 11 41
16. Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6 41
17. School No.16 40
18. Passaic Arts and Science Charter School 34
19. Sonia Sotomayor School #21 32
20. Theodore Roosevelt School No. 10 31
21. Ellen Ochoa School Number 22 26
22. Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25 14

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Passaic

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Hope Academy 30.3/100
  2. 2 Passaic Arts and Science Charter School 30.1/100
  3. 3 Mario Drago School No. 3 26.9/100
  4. 4 Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering 18.2/100
  5. 5 Vincent Capuana School No. 15 16.6/100

What do families ask about schools in Passaic?

Which Passaic school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Abraham Lincoln School Number 24 has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Passaic schools in this federal-data comparison at 68/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Passaic, NJ? ▼

Passaic has 22 public schools with a total enrollment of 14,658 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.7:1.

Other Cities in New Jersey

Newark
81 schools
Jersey City
52 schools
Paterson
46 schools
Elizabeth
38 schools
Trenton
34 schools
Hamilton
27 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in New Jersey →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.