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What's the most underrated thing about John F. Kennedy High School that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,846
High
DISTRICT 633 · STATE 929
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PATERSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341269003171
John F. Kennedy High School
61-127 PREAKNESS AVENUE, PATERSON, NJ 07502 · (973) 321-0500 · Passaic County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,846 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of New Jersey public high schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded New Jersey public high schools
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
138 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.4:1 · STATE 12.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
60%
1,111 students
DISTRICT 71% · STATE 41%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 465 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 426 | 23% |
| Grade 11 | 440 | 24% |
| Grade 12 | 515 | 28% |
Student demographics
47%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 44% · 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
Test scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
7.9%
NJ avg 53.1% . -2.0pp since 2023
Math
1.8%
NJ avg 41.6% . +0.6pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 8 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 2 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 have held steady.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 7.9% | 1.8% |
| 2023-24 | 9.9% | 1.2% |
% 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
4.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.2%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-28.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 5% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 33% 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 John F. Kennedy High School
John F. Kennedy High School's state test result (4.8% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| John F. Kennedy High School this school | 1,846 | 60.2% | 4.8% |
| Hackensack High School HACKENSACK | 1,813 | 63.7% | 26.3% |
| Eastside High School PATERSON | 2,073 | 58.3% | 3.2% |
| Vineland Senior High School VINELAND | 2,736 | 61.7% | 9.9% |
| Belleville High School BELLEVILLE | 1,590 | 69.9% | 18.6% |
| Barringer High School NEWARK | 1,894 | 59.7% | 2.8% |
Matched among New Jersey high 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 John F. Kennedy High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Passaic County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 4.8% | #391 of 397 | #19 of 21 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 1.8% | #391 of 400 no change | #19 of 21 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 7.9% | #383 of 395 ▲ 5 | #17 of 21 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,846 | #45 of 442 | #5 of 24 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.4:1 | #275 of 388 | #15 of 19 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 47.3% | #254 of 389 | #10 of 19 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 60.2% | #106 of 405 | #8 of 22 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +226.1% | #1 of 173 | N/A |
Ranked against other public high 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
1,846
+1,263 (+217%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
was 12.2:1
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 | 1,846 | 138 | 13.4:1 | 60% (1,111) |
| 2023-24 | 1,794 | 143 | 12.6:1 | 48% (861) |
| 2022-23 | 2,053 | 141 | 14.6:1 | 52% (1,060) |
| 2020-21 | 583 | 48 | 12.2:1 | 54% (316) |
| 2017-18 | 566 | 53 | 10.7:1 | 73% (412) |
| 2015-16 | 532 | 47 | 11.3:1 | 63% (334) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for John F. Kennedy High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 226% (566 to 1,846); teachers up 160% (53 to 138).
About John F. Kennedy High School
Families in PATERSON, New Jersey, are served by John F. Kennedy High School, a large high school. The school teaches grades 9 through 12 and enrolls 1,846 students. It has 99% more students than the average for high schools in New Jersey (about 929).
John F. Kennedy High School is one school in a 43-school district, Paterson Public School District, which enrolls 21,372 students.
Federal enrollment data show John F. Kennedy High School is 70% Hispanic. Next come 15% Black, 8% Asian, and 6% White. The county population is about 44% Hispanic. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 47%.
Classroom staffing at John F. Kennedy High School totals 138 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 13.4:1. It is about the same as the 12.7:1 average for high schools in New Jersey. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at John F. Kennedy High School is about 60%. Public schools in Passaic County average a similar 61%.
On the allk12 Grade, John F. Kennedy High School lands at F, ahead of 1% of New Jersey public high schools.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for John F. Kennedy High School is -28.4 points, in the bottom 10% of New Jersey. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 4.8%, and the predicted rate is 33.2%.
In Passaic County, the median household earns about $87,522 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and about 11% of people live in poverty. Passaic County has 155 public schools with about 83,237 students, including John F. Kennedy High School.
The closest school to John F. Kennedy High School is Joseph A. Taub School, located about 0.3 miles away. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. Nearby schools average 27.5% on proficiency, and John F. Kennedy High School is below that at 4.8%.
Federal records code the school's setting as Suburb: Large.
John F. Kennedy High School had 583 students in 2020-21 and 1,846 in 2024-25, according to federal records. Those counts may cover different grade spans. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio increased to 13.4:1, from 12.2:1.
The allk12 page for John F. Kennedy High School lets the school community talk about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. You can also rate the school on this page.
Passaic County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
521,012
Census ACS
Median income
$87,522
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
31%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
155
83,237 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Paterson Public School District
- Eastside High SchoolHigh · 2,073 students
- Joseph A. Taub SchoolMiddle · 976 students
- School 16Elementary · 813 students
- School 5Elementary · 753 students
- Charles J. Riley/ School 9Elementary · 682 students
- School 24Elementary · 668 students
Other schools in PATERSON
- Eastside High SchoolHigh · 2,073 students
- Paterson Charter School for Science and TechnologyCombined · 1,708 students
- College Achieve Paterson Charter SchoolCombined · 1,688 students
- Paterson Arts and Science Charter SchoolCombined · 1,330 students
- Joseph A. Taub SchoolMiddle · 976 students
- Community Charter School of PatersonElementary · 896 students
Other John F. Kennedy High schools
10 other US public schools in 6 states are named John F. Kennedy High. John F. Kennedy High School is the 4th largest of the 11.
- John F. Kennedy HighGranada Hills, CA · 2,152 students
- John F. Kennedy HighLa Palma, CA · 1,983 students
- John F. Kennedy HighSilver Spring, MD · 1,880 students
- John F. Kennedy HighSacramento, CA · 1,652 students
- JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOLTAMUNING, GU · 1,650 students
Nearby schools
- Joseph A. Taub School0.3 mi · 976
- School 190.4 mi · 288
- School 70.4 mi · 250
- School 50.4 mi · 753
- College Achieve Paterson Charter School0.5 mi · 1,688
- Paterson Arts and Science Charter School0.5 mi · 1,330
Frequently asked questions
About John F. Kennedy High SchoolHow many students attend John F. Kennedy High School?
John F. Kennedy High School enrolls approximately 1,846 students in grades 09-12.
What grades does John F. Kennedy High School serve?
John F. Kennedy High School serves grades 09-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at John F. Kennedy High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at John F. Kennedy High School is approximately 13.4:1 (138 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at John F. Kennedy High School?
Student demographics at John F. Kennedy High School are roughly 6% White, 70% Hispanic, 15% Black, 8% Asian, 0% Two or more.
What district is John F. Kennedy High School in?
John F. Kennedy High School is part of Paterson Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.