Summary:
The Somers Point School District in New Jersey has only one elementary school, Dawes Avenue Elementary School, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through 5th grade. The school has consistently ranked in the bottom quarter of New Jersey elementary schools, with below-average performance on state assessments. Despite having a relatively low student-to-teacher ratio and high per-student spending, the school faces significant challenges, including a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and a chronic absenteeism rate of 14.9%.
Dawes Avenue Elementary School's academic performance has been a concern, with only 29.8% of 3rd-grade students proficient or better in English Language Arts and 27.1% proficient or better in Mathematics, compared to state averages of 44.9% and 49.8%, respectively. This low performance has resulted in the school's ranking of 1107 out of 1347 elementary schools in the 2024-2025 school year and 1065 out of 1338 in the 2023-2024 school year.
The high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, at 62.84% in the 2023-2024 school year, suggests that the school may be serving a population with significant socioeconomic challenges, which can impact student learning and performance. Additionally, the school's chronic absenteeism rate of 14.9% in the 2023-2024 school year may be a contributing factor to the low academic outcomes. While the school has a relatively low student-to-teacher ratio of 8.8 to 1 and high per-student spending of $14,096 in the 2018-2019 school year, these resources do not appear to be translating into improved academic achievement for the students.
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