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How has Nicolaus Copernicus School changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
497
Elementary
DISTRICT 601 · STATE 405
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·JERSEY CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 340783002810
Nicolaus Copernicus School
3385 KENNEDY BLVD, JERSEY CITY, NJ 07307 · (201) 714-4340 · Hudson County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL497 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 65% of New Jersey public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
10.6:1
47 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 11.3:1 · STATE 11.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
56%
276 students
DISTRICT 69% · STATE 41%
Community
1
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 60 | 12% |
| Kindergarten | 61 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 98 | 20% |
| Grade 2 | 60 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 70 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 80 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 68 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (61) is 10% smaller than its 5th grade class (68).
Student demographics
62%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · 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
50.9%
NJ avg 53.1% . +0.3pp since 2023
Math
47.5%
NJ avg 41.6% . +2.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 51 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 48 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 50.9% | 47.5% |
| 2023-24 | 50.6% | 45.1% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
45.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.8%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+9.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 46% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 36% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New Jersey's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Nicolaus Copernicus School
Nicolaus Copernicus School's state test result (45.6% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolaus Copernicus School this school | 497 | 55.5% | 45.6% |
| Jotham W. Wakeman School JERSEY CITY | 617 | 45.2% | 65.0% |
| Patricia M. Noonan School PS #26 Jersey City | 539 | 54.5% | 35.5% |
| Benjamin Franklin Elementary School EDISON | 619 | 48.1% | 40.8% |
| Washington Elementary School EDISON | 630 | 41.1% | 48.7% |
| Private Nicholas Minue Elementary School CARTERET | 529 | 71.5% | 42.0% |
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 Nicolaus Copernicus School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Hudson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 45.6% | #623 of 1,290 | #18 of 84 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 47.5% | #637 of 1,319 ▲ 20 | #18 of 84 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.9% | #682 of 1,319 ▼ 27 | #29 of 84 ▼ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 497 | #416 of 1,562 | #55 of 88 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 10.6:1 | #502 of 1,390 | #24 of 87 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 62.1% | #414 of 1,392 | #37 of 87 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 55.5% | #515 of 1,481 | #68 of 88 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -31.6% | #52 of 798 | #5 of 61 |
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
497
-129 (-21%) vs 2020
-51% since 1990-91, when it was 1,006
Student : Teacher
10.6:1
was 11.4:1
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 | 497 | 47 | 10.6:1 | 56% (276) |
| 2023-24 | 516 | 47.1 | 11.0:1 | 49% (254) |
| 2022-23 | 521 | 51 | 10.2:1 | 52% (269) |
| 2020-21 | 626 | 55 | 11.4:1 | 53% (333) |
| 2017-18 | 727 | 63 | 11.5:1 | 61% (445) |
| 2015-16 | 782 | 61 | 12.8:1 | 66% (515) |
| 2010-11 | 833 | 50 | 16.7:1 | 76% (635) |
| 2000-01 | 1,238 | 71 | 17.4:1 | 76% (935) |
| 1990-91 | 1,006 | 61 | 16.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Nicolaus Copernicus School.
Since 2017-18: students down 32% (727 to 497); teachers down 25% (63 to 47).
About Nicolaus Copernicus School
Nicolaus Copernicus School is a public elementary school in JERSEY CITY, New Jersey. Its grade span covers pre-K through 5, with 497 students on the rolls. Across elementary schools in New Jersey, the average enrollment is about 405.
Jersey City Public Schools is the district for Nicolaus Copernicus School. It has 39 schools and 24,151 students.
Asian students account for 47% of enrollment at Nicolaus Copernicus School, more than any other group. Other groups make up 38% Hispanic, 10% White, and 4% Black. County-wide, 17% of Hudson County residents are Asian. The diversity index for Nicolaus Copernicus School is 62%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
The school had 47 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 10.6:1. The gap from the 11.4:1 average for elementary schools in New Jersey is 0.9 students per teacher. The school reported 56% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. The average for public schools in Hudson County is 68%.
Among New Jersey public elementary schools, Nicolaus Copernicus School outscored 65%, which works out to a B+ on the allk12 Grade.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Nicolaus Copernicus School falls in the middle 80% of New Jersey schools: 45.6% actual against 35.8% predicted.
For the population of Hudson County, median household income comes to about $91,795, 49% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Hudson County counts 130 public schools with about 86,216 students.
Of the public schools around it, Nicolaus Copernicus School is closest to Jersey City Global Charter School, about 0.4 miles away. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Nicolaus Copernicus School at 4th of 9.
NCES assigns Nicolaus Copernicus School the locale City: Large, meaning inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, Nicolaus Copernicus School had a net loss of 129 students, or 21%.
The allk12 page for Nicolaus Copernicus School lets the school community talk about special education services, counseling, and support programs. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Hudson County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
718,323
Census ACS
Median income
$91,795
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
49%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
130
86,216 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Jersey City Public Schools
- William L Dickinson High SchoolHigh · 1,786 students
- James J Ferris High SchoolHigh · 1,364 students
- Cornelia F. Bradford SchoolElementary · 1,082 students
- Joseph H. Brensinger SchoolElementary · 926 students
- Christa McAuliffe SchoolElementary · 906 students
- Franklin L. Williams SchoolMiddle · 906 students
Other schools in JERSEY CITY
- William L Dickinson High SchoolHigh · 1,786 students
- BelovED Community Charter SchoolCombined · 1,573 students
- James J Ferris High SchoolHigh · 1,364 students
- Empowerment Academy Charter SchoolCombined · 1,272 students
- Cornelia F. Bradford SchoolElementary · 1,082 students
- Joseph H. Brensinger SchoolElementary · 926 students
Nearby schools
- Jersey City Global Charter School0.4 mi · 423
- Alfred Zampella School0.5 mi · 629
- Christa McAuliffe School0.5 mi · 906
- Charles E. Trefurt School0.6 mi · 668
- Franklin L. Williams School0.6 mi · 906
- Patricia M. Noonan School PS #260.6 mi · 539
Frequently asked questions
About Nicolaus Copernicus SchoolHow many students attend Nicolaus Copernicus School?
Nicolaus Copernicus School enrolls approximately 497 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Nicolaus Copernicus School serve?
Nicolaus Copernicus School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Nicolaus Copernicus School have?
Nicolaus Copernicus School employs 47 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 10.6:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Nicolaus Copernicus School?
At Nicolaus Copernicus School, the student body is approximately 10% White, 38% Hispanic, 4% Black, 47% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Is Nicolaus Copernicus School public or private?
Nicolaus Copernicus School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Jersey City Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.