Enrollment
350
Elementary
DISTRICT 365 · STATE 405
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TRENTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341629003248
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary
175 GIRARD AVENUE, TRENTON, NJ 08638 · (609) 656-4970 · Mercer County
GRADES KG–03ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL350 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.7:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 11.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
79%
275 students
DISTRICT 81% · STATE 41%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 86 | 25% |
| Grade 1 | 86 | 25% |
| Grade 2 | 86 | 25% |
| Grade 3 | 92 | 26% |
Student demographics
45%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 46% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
2.2%
NJ avg 53.1% . -1.6pp since 2023
Math
6.5%
NJ avg 41.6% . +1.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 2 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 7 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 2.2% | 6.5% |
| 2023-24 | 3.8% | 5.5% |
% Meeting or Exceeding Expectations, all students and all tested grades.
Source: NJSLA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of NJ schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
4.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
23.2%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-18.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 5% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 23% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Darlene C. McKnight Elementary
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary's state test result (4.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darlene C. McKnight Elementary this school | 350 | 78.6% | 4.5% |
| Harrison Elementary School ROSELLE | 325 | 79.4% | 44.6% |
| Washington Elementary School W ORANGE | 414 | 74.6% | 40.4% |
| Paul S. Robeson Elementary School TRENTON | 390 | 81.8% | 3.9% |
| Emerson Community School PLAINFIELD | 414 | 72.7% | 29.4% |
| Geraldyn O Foster Early Childhood Center BRIDGETON | 316 | 73.4% | N/A |
Matched among New Jersey elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Darlene C. McKnight Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Mercer County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 4.5% | #1,287 of 1,290 | #54 of 56 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.5% | #1,295 of 1,319 ▲ 5 | #54 of 56 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 2.2% | #1,318 of 1,319 ▼ 4 | #56 of 56 ▼ 4 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 350 | #897 of 1,562 | #33 of 60 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.7:1 | #1,201 of 1,390 | #50 of 57 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 44.9% | #940 of 1,392 | #43 of 57 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 78.6% | #232 of 1,481 | #21 of 58 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.7% | #148 of 798 | #3 of 30 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
350
-179 (-34%) vs 2020
-35% since 1990-91, when it was 539
Student : Teacher
13.7:1
was 12.9:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 350 | 25.5 | 13.7:1 | 79% (275) |
| 2023-24 | 341 | 26.5 | 12.9:1 | 45% (152) |
| 2022-23 | 361 | 26.5 | 13.6:1 | 71% (257) |
| 2020-21 | 529 | 41 | 12.9:1 | 50% (262) |
| 2017-18 | 447 | 38 | 11.8:1 | 93% (417) |
| 2015-16 | 415 | 36 | 11.5:1 | 95% (396) |
| 2010-11 | 349 | 30 | 11.6:1 | 76% (265) |
| 2000-01 | 395 | 33 | 12.0:1 | 86% (338) |
| 1990-91 | 539 | 36 | 15.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Darlene C. McKnight Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 22% (447 to 350); teachers down 33% (38 to 25.5).
About Darlene C. McKnight Elementary
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is an elementary school in TRENTON, New Jersey, reachable at (609) 656-4970. Enrollment totals 350 students across kindergarten through 3.
The Trenton Public School District system has 25 schools and 13,549 students.
Hispanic students are 69% of those enrolled at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary. The remaining shares are 28% Black and 2% multiracial. Census estimates put the Hispanic share of Mercer County's population at about 23%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 45, compared with 70 nationally.
Staffing at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary comes to 25.5 full-time-equivalent teachers, or 13.7:1. Elementary schools in New Jersey have an average ratio of 11.4:1. On the income side, 79% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. That rate is above the 48% average among public schools in Mercer County.
The BeatsExpectations model predicts 23.2% for Darlene C. McKnight Elementary, given its share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The actual figure is 4.5%. The 18.7-point gap ranks in the bottom 10% of New Jersey schools.
In the surrounding county, Mercer County, the median household earns about $100,645 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 45%, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Mercer County has 110 public schools with about 58,647 students, including Darlene C. McKnight Elementary.
Measured in a straight line, Paul Robeson Charter School for the Humanities is about 0.4 miles from Darlene C. McKnight Elementary. The five-mile area around Darlene C. McKnight Elementary holds at least 8 other public schools. The nearest schools with test data average 9.3%, higher than Darlene C. McKnight Elementary's 4.5%.
In the federal locale system, Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is coded City: Small, for schools inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
The school shrank from 529 students in 2020-21 to 350 in 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about open houses, carpools, and field trips. You can also rate the school on this page.
Mercer County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
385,864
Census ACS
Median income
$100,645
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
45%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
110
58,647 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Trenton Public School District
- Trenton Central High School - Main CampusHigh · 2,097 students
- Trenton Central High School-9th Grade AcademyHigh · 890 students
- Capital City High SchoolHigh · 756 students
- Grace A Dunn Middle SchoolMiddle · 703 students
- Hedgepeth Williams Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 668 students
- Dr. Martin Luther King Middle SchoolMiddle · 650 students
Other schools in TRENTON
- Trenton Central High School - Main CampusHigh · 2,097 students
- Foundation Academy Charter SchoolCombined · 1,155 students
- Trenton Central High School-9th Grade AcademyHigh · 890 students
- Capital City High SchoolHigh · 756 students
- Grace A Dunn Middle SchoolMiddle · 703 students
- Hedgepeth Williams Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 668 students
Nearby schools
- Paul Robeson Charter School for the Humanities0.4 mi · 545
- Dr. Crosby Copeland Jr Elementary0.5 mi · 353
- Patton J. Hill Elementary School0.7 mi · 555
- Dr. Martin Luther King Middle School0.8 mi · 650
- Grant Intermediate School0.9 mi · 610
- Hedgepeth Williams Intermediate School1.0 mi · 668
Frequently asked questions
About Darlene C. McKnight ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary?
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary enrolls approximately 350 students in grades KG-03.
What grades does Darlene C. McKnight Elementary serve?
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary serves grades KG-03.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is approximately 13.7:1 (26 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary?
At Darlene C. McKnight Elementary, the student body is approximately 1% White, 69% Hispanic, 28% Black, 2% Two or more.
What district is Darlene C. McKnight Elementary in?
Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is part of Trenton Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.