Summary:
Three elementary schools in ZIP code 07513, all part of the Paterson Public School District, serve students from prekindergarten through grade 8. In 2025–2026, their average proficiency was 22% in ELA, 13% in math, and 7% in science, compared with state averages of 51%, 40%, and 23%. The most important finding for families is that even the strongest school average in each subject was well below the state average.
School 16 had the highest average ELA result at 25% and math at 17%; Maria Magda O’Keefe School led in science at 9%. At the other end, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Educational Complex averaged 18% in ELA, 8% in math, and 5% in science. The gap between the strongest and weakest school averages was 7 points in ELA, 10 in math, and 4 in science. Grade-level results add nuance: O’Keefe led ELA in grades 6–8 and had the only grade-level math result above the state result, with 24% in eighth-grade math versus 23% statewide. SchoolDigger gave all three schools zero stars; its statewide rankings were 1,226th (8th percentile) for School 16, 1,256th (6th percentile) for O’Keefe, and 1,284th (4th percentile) for MLK.
Across the three schools, average ELA results fell 4 points from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while math rose 1 point and science rose 3; statewide, ELA fell 3 points, math rose less than 1 point, and science fell 1 point. This means the local ELA gap widened, while math and science gaps narrowed. School 16’s stronger ELA and math averages sit alongside the lowest chronic absenteeism rate—13% in 2024–2025, versus 23% at O’Keefe and 38% at MLK—but these figures do not establish a cause. That year’s student-teacher ratios were 15 at School 16, 12.3 at O’Keefe, and 10.5 at MLK. All three reported the share of students eligible for free/reduced lunch in 2024–2025: 71% at School 16, 85% at O’Keefe, and 66% at MLK.
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