Darlene C. McKnight Elementary

Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is one of the mid-sized elementary schools in TRENTON, New Jersey, part of Trenton Public School District, with 350 students on its rolls from grades K through 3.

Within Trenton Public School District, which oversees 25 schools and 13,549 students, Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Darlene C. McKnight Elementary records that 69% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Beyond that, the school reports 28% Black, 2% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 23% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.7:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 11.4:1 average. An estimated 79% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is noticeably above Mercer County's rate of about 48%.

With demographic context factored in, Darlene C. McKnight Elementary falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 23.2%; this one comes in at 4.5%, -18.7 points off the demographic line.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Mercer County indicate the typical household earns roughly $100,645 per year, about 45% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Mercer County runs 110 public schools (combined enrollment of about 58,647 students), of which Darlene C. McKnight Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Paul Robeson Charter School for the Humanities, around 0.4 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Darlene C. McKnight Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 9.3%.

The campus sits in a high-density setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Darlene C. McKnight Elementary has ticked down 22%, going from 447 students in 2018 to 350 in 2025. Class-load math has rose: from 11.8:1 in 2018 to 13.7:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.