Summary:
The Essex Fells Elementary School is the only elementary school listed in the Essex Fells School District; it serves prekindergarten through grade 6 and enrolls 251 students. Its strongest finding is consistent performance well above New Jersey’s rates: in 2025–2026, the school’s average across grades 3–6 was 85% in English language arts (ELA) and 81% in math, compared with state averages of 49% and 46%.
Because there is only one school in the list, there are no local school-to-school standouts or rankings to compare. Within the school, grade 3 math was the highest result, at 93%, while grade 6 math was the lowest, at 70%; even that lowest result was 30 percentage points above the state grade 6 rate. Across the tested grades, the school exceeded state results in every reported subject and grade. Its 2025–2026 grade-level advantages ranged from 29 to 42 points in ELA and from 30 to 44 points in math; grade 5 science was 33 points above the state rate.
Results changed unevenly from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: the four-grade ELA average fell 4 points and the math average fell 1 point, while the state ELA average fell 3 points and its math average rose less than 1 point. Grade 4 improved in both subjects, but grades 5 and 6 declined in ELA and math; grade 5 science stayed at 60% as the state rate fell from 30% to 27%. SchoolDigger ranked the school 37th of 1,331 statewide in 2025–2026, in the 97th percentile; it lists the district 11th of 607, in the 98th percentile, with five stars. Context measures include a 9.4 student–teacher ratio and 1% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2022–2023; chronic absenteeism was 4% in 2024–2025, compared with 14% statewide. With one school and two years of test results, these figures cannot show whether the patterns will continue.
Thank you for your feedback!