Nutley Public School District

The Nutley Public School District has seven public schools—five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school—with 4,299 students. Across matched elementary grades and subjects, school results averaged 14 percentage points above the state in ELA and 10 points above in math, but those averages conceal large differences between schools. The clearest concern is Lincoln School: it was below the state in several results and ranked last among the elementary schools in multiple comparisons.

Yantacaw School and Spring Garden School stand out, with strengths in different grades. Yantacaw led grade 5 math at 79%, grade 6 math at 72% and grade 5 ELA at 78%; Spring Garden led grade 3 ELA at 74%, grade 3 math at 76% and grade 4 math at 73%. Radcliffe School led grade 5 science at 45%, 18 points above the state. By contrast, Lincoln scored 28% in grade 4 ELA and 29% in grade 4 math, 19 and 18 points below state results. The grade 4 school-to-school spread was 45 points in ELA and 44 in math.

Elementary results remain above state averages overall, but the area’s lead has narrowed: the average across school-grade ELA and math results fell 5 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while the state average fell 1 point, reducing the schools’ advantage by 4 points. SchoolDigger rankings range from the 45th percentile at Lincoln to the 78th at Yantacaw; Washington School is at the 67th percentile, and John H. Walker Middle School at the 74th. All five elementary schools report free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–25: the share ranges from 7% at Yantacaw to 27% at Lincoln, with Washington at 23%; this is context, not an explanation of scores. Ratios also vary, from 10.9 students per teacher at Radcliffe to 18.0 at Spring Garden, showing that smaller ratios do not automatically correspond to higher results.