Great Oaks Legacy Charter School

As a well-populated all-grades campus in Newark, New Jersey, Great Oaks Legacy Charter School caters to 2,169 students from grades pre-K through 12, one of the schools within Great Oaks Legacy Charter School. Enrollment runs roughly 132% above the state mean of about 934.

Great Oaks Legacy Charter School is the operating authority for Great Oaks Legacy Charter School, handling staffing, calendars, and reporting to the state department of education.

On the student-mix side, Great Oaks Legacy Charter School records that nearly all students (85%) are Black; the rest comes out to 14% Hispanic. By comparison, Essex County as a whole is about 36% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Great Oaks Legacy Charter School records 64 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 33.9:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.8:1, putting Great Oaks Legacy Charter School higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 66% of students at Great Oaks Legacy Charter School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is noticeably above Essex County's rate of about 54%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Great Oaks Legacy Charter School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 30.2%, the actual is 29.0%, a residual of -1.2 points.

In the broader community, census data for Essex County shows median household earnings sit near $80,789, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Essex County's 249 public schools (combined enrollment of about 145,473 students), Great Oaks Legacy Charter School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Discovery Charter School, roughly 0.1 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Great Oaks Legacy Charter School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 35.2%.

The school occupies a high-density site. Great Oaks Legacy Charter School is a charter school, which puts it inside the public-school system but outside the standard district-managed model.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 50%: 1,445 students in 2018 compared to 2,169 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio loosened from 21.1:1 in 2018 to 33.9:1 today.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.