Summary
Benjamin Banneker Academy serves students in prekindergarten through grade 8 in East Orange, New Jersey; its listed enrollment is zero, an implausible count that does not establish how many students attend. The central academic concern is that results are well below state averages in most tested grades and especially low in science: in 2025–26, average proficiency was 34% in ELA versus 51% statewide, 19% in math versus 37%, and 1% in science versus 23%. The school scored below the state in all six math grades, both science grades, and five of six ELA grades.
The clearest strength is eighth-grade ELA, where 61% of students were proficient—above the state’s 53% and the district’s 29%, and higher than results at nearby schools reporting that grade. The school also had the highest nearby grade 7 ELA result, at 42%. In contrast, elementary ELA results were below nearby-school averages, and science was among the weakest locally: grade 5 proficiency was 2%, versus an 11% nearby average, while grade 8 proficiency was 0%, below the three nearby schools with results. These differences show that the school’s outcomes vary considerably by grade and subject.
Across the four years shown, average math proficiency rose by 7 points, from 11% to 19%, while ELA fell by 5 points and science by 3; the state gap narrowed only in math. SchoolDigger ranks the school at the 12th percentile statewide, with one star, in 2025–26; its rank is 1,165 out of 1,331, and it is below six of nine nearby schools with current rankings. SchoolDigger’s Low Socio Economic Status Students ranking rose sharply to the 65th percentile from the 21st in 2024–25, while its African American Students ranking was at the 31st percentile, down from 45th in 2023–24. In 2023–24, 60% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible, compared with 64% at Langston Hughes Elementary School and 73% at Dionne Warwick Institute; this is context, not an explanation for academic results. The latest student–teacher ratio is listed as zero, so it cannot be meaningfully compared.
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