Summary:
The four schools in ZIP code 08030 serve grades PK–12, with enrollments from 277 to 839. Across the 12 comparable grade 3–8 school results in 2025–26, average proficiency was 41% in English language arts (ELA), versus 51% statewide, and 25% in math, versus 40% statewide. Every school also had chronic absenteeism above the state’s 14% rate, ranging from 19% to 26%. The clearest area-wide academic concern is math, where the average was 15 percentage points below the state.
Alice Costello Elementary School stands out in grade 8: its 75% ELA and 35% math proficiency rates were 33 and 24 points above Gloucester City Middle School, respectively. Alice Costello also exceeded state results in both grade 8 subjects, while the middle school was below the state in both. Across shared grades, Alice Costello led in four of six math comparisons and three of six ELA comparisons, but its results varied: it had the lowest grade 6 scores in both subjects. Cold Springs School was below Alice Costello in both grade 3 subjects by 11 points in ELA and 14 in math.
Area averages moved farther below the state from 2024–25 to 2025–26: the ELA gap widened from 9 to 10 points, and the math gap from 13 to 15 points, though individual school trends differed. SchoolDigger’s ranking percentile rose from 17 to 24 for Cold Springs, while it fell from 32 to 30 for Gloucester City Middle, 39 to 29 for Gloucester City High School, and 38 to 30 for Alice Costello. Context measures do not neatly track results: in 2024–25, free/reduced lunch eligibility ranged from 56% at the high school to 70% at Alice Costello, which also had the lowest student-teacher ratio at 8.5; the high school’s ratio was 14.7.
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