Hawkins Street School

Hawkins Street School is a K–8 school with 660 students in Newark, in the Newark Public School District. Its latest results show one clear exception to an otherwise concerning academic picture: in 2025–2026, 84% of Grade 8 students were proficient in Algebra I, while six-grade averages were 20% in English Language Arts (ELA) and 13% in mathematics. The most important takeaway is that Algebra I stands out as a strength, but ELA and mathematics proficiency remain low.

Algebra I was above the district’s 81% and the state’s 75%. By contrast, Hawkins’s ELA average was below the district’s 28% and state’s 51%; mathematics was also below the district’s 22% and state’s 40%. Science was a relative strength against the district: Hawkins averaged 10%, compared with 8% districtwide, though the state average was 23%. Results vary by grade, too: Hawkins had 13% proficient in Grade 3 ELA, compared with 43% at Oliver Street School. In Grade 8, its 36% in ELA was higher than East Ward Elementary School’s 29%.

Scores have improved since 2022–2023: the ELA average rose from 15% to 20%, mathematics from 6% to 13%, science from 2% to 10%, and Grade 8 Algebra I from 36% to 84%. Even with those gains, Hawkins ranks 1,268th of 1,331 schools statewide on SchoolDigger, at the 5th percentile with 0 stars. SchoolDigger’s measure of how well it serves Special Education Students places the school at the 31st percentile, compared with its overall 5th percentile, up from the 9th percentile in 2024–2025. Other context includes a 14.0 student–teacher ratio and 3% chronic absenteeism in 2024–2025, below the district’s 10% and state’s 14%. The school’s free/reduced lunch eligible share was 89% in 2024–2025, the highest among nearby Newark schools with comparable data; these figures describe context, not causes of achievement.