Division B

Jersey City Public Schools consists of four divisions. Division B is comprised of twelve schools with approximately 9,800 students with an attendance zone in the Heights and Downtown section of Jersey City. The student population in Division B is coded as 49% Hispanic, 22% Asian, 14% Black, 13% White and 2% multi-ethnic with some schools having a higher percentage of one ethnicity than the other based on the neighborhood they serve.

However, not all students in the Division show similar academic achievement on PARCC and other formal assessments. Based the results of the PARCC assessment, ten (10) schools had a mean score above the district and/or State in one or more grades (3-8) for Mathematics and nine (9) had a mean score above the district and/or State in one or more grades (3-8) for English Language Arts. In the Division four of the six schools with an eighth grade, offer Algebra. Of the schools that administered the Algebra I PARCC assessment, two schools had a mean at or above the state average.

Even though some schools show that students are meeting the standards, the academic achievement of English Language Learners (ELLs) and Students with Disability (SWD) is very low when compared with the school mean in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Student achievement data on other forms of assessments (DORA, ADAM, DOMA, ACCESS and Benchmark/Quarterly) show uneven gains for ELLs and SWD. Across the various schools the number of students on grade level in the various areas of Reading and Writing declines after third grade with most students having difficulty with spelling, comprehension and vocabulary. In Mathematics, the number of students on grade level declines after the second grade as well but the data show that the deficiency is across all the strands (algebra, number sense, geometry, measurement and data analysis).