Enrollment
357
High
DISTRICT 834 · STATE 929
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PLAINFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341314003041
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies
1700 West Front St, PLAINFIELD, NJ 07063 · (908) 731-4421 · Union County
GRADES 07–12HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL357 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 48% of New Jersey public high schools
- CTest 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
8.9:1
40 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.9:1 · STATE 12.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
77%
276 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 41%
Community
0
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 7 | 31 | 9% |
| Grade 8 | 49 | 14% |
| Grade 9 | 70 | 20% |
| Grade 10 | 77 | 22% |
| Grade 11 | 79 | 22% |
| Grade 12 | 51 | 14% |
Student demographics
45%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 30% · 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
49.0%
NJ avg 53.1% . -4.7pp since 2023
Math
15.4%
NJ avg 41.6% . +1.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 15 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 49.0% | 15.4% |
| 2023-24 | 53.7% | 14.2% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
26.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
23.9%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 26% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 24% 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 Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies's state test result (26.0% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies this school | 357 | 77.3% | 26.0% |
| The Barack Obama Green Charter School Plainfield | 358 | 78.2% | 14.2% |
| Newark School of Fashion & Design Newark | 275 | 88.0% | 10.9% |
| Asbury Park High School ASBURY PARK | 379 | 67.5% | 18.1% |
| J. Christian Bollwage Finance Academy Elizabeth | 415 | 81.0% | 24.5% |
| Essex County West Caldwell Tech West Caldwell | 353 | 66.0% | 36.8% |
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 Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Union County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 26.0% | #283 of 397 | #19 of 31 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 15.4% | #285 of 400 ▲ 19 | #18 of 31 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 49.0% | #217 of 395 ▲ 21 | #19 of 31 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 357 | #359 of 442 | #27 of 39 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 8.9:1 | #17 of 388 | #1 of 31 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 45.3% | #273 of 389 | #18 of 31 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 77.3% | #37 of 405 | #9 of 31 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.1% | #86 of 200 | #2 of 6 |
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
357
-57 (-14%) vs 2020
+123% since 2010-11, when it was 160
Student : Teacher
8.9:1
was 10.1:1
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 | 357 | 40 | 8.9:1 | 77% (276) |
| 2023-24 | 345 | 41 | 8.4:1 | 75% (259) |
| 2022-23 | 356 | 38 | 9.4:1 | 76% (270) |
| 2020-21 | 414 | 41 | 10.1:1 | 69% (284) |
| 2017-18 | 397 | 40 | 9.9:1 | 69% (272) |
| 2015-16 | 399 | 38 | 10.5:1 | 65% (259) |
| 2010-11 | 160 | 17 | 9.4:1 | 70% (112) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (397 to 357); teachers unchanged (40 to 40).
About Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is a small high school in Plainfield Public School District, located in PLAINFIELD, New Jersey. Classes run from 7 through 12, and the school has 357 students. Against the 929-student average for high schools in New Jersey, enrollment here is 62% lower.
The district for Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is Plainfield Public School District, with 15 schools and 8,522 students.
Hispanic students account for 67% of enrollment at Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies. Other students are 31% Black. That is higher than the 35% Hispanic share among all Union County residents. By the diversity index, Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies comes in at 45%.
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies operates with 40 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 8.9:1. That ratio is under the 12.7:1 average for high schools in New Jersey. Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies reports 77% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The 52% average for public schools in Union County is 25 points lower.
The allk12 Grade for Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is B-. Compared with New Jersey public high schools, the school scored higher than 48% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 23.9% for Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies. The school posts 26.0%, 2.1 points above the prediction.
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is located in Union County, where median household income is about $103,202, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 39%, and about 7% of people live in poverty. Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is one of 180 public schools in Union County, which together enroll about 99,046 students.
The shortest distance from Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies to another public school is less than a tenth of a mile, to Jefferson Elementary School. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. By average proficiency, Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is 6th among 9 schools close by.
By NCES locale, the school is Suburb: Large, or in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment was 414 in 2020-21 and 357 in 2024-25, a decrease of 57 students. The student-to-teacher ratio went down from 10.1:1 to 8.9:1.
Topics for discussion here include school safety, transportation, and start times. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Union County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
579,290
Census ACS
Median income
$103,202
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
180
99,046 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Plainfield Public School District
- Plainfield High SchoolHigh · 2,077 students
- Charles and Anna Booker Elementary SchoolElementary · 816 students
- Hubbard Middle SchoolMiddle · 737 students
- Maxson Middle SchoolMiddle · 721 students
- Cedarbrook Elementary SchoolElementary · 671 students
- Washington Community SchoolElementary · 557 students
Other schools in PLAINFIELD
- Plainfield High SchoolHigh · 2,077 students
- College Achieve Central Charter SchoolCombined · 1,572 students
- Charles and Anna Booker Elementary SchoolElementary · 816 students
- Hubbard Middle SchoolMiddle · 737 students
- Maxson Middle SchoolMiddle · 721 students
- Cedarbrook Elementary SchoolElementary · 671 students
Nearby schools
- Jefferson Elementary School0.0 mi · 383
- Arbor Elementary School0.6 mi · 528
- Green Brook Middle School0.7 mi · 304
- Clinton Elementary School0.7 mi · 386
- Lincoln Middle School0.8 mi · 333
- Dunellen High School0.8 mi · 409
Frequently asked questions
About Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced StudiesWhat is the total enrollment at Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies?
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies enrolls approximately 357 students in grades 07-12.
What age range does Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies serve?
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies serves students from grade 07 through grade 12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is approximately 8.9:1 (40 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies?
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies reports a student body of 1% White, 67% Hispanic, 31% Black, 1% Two or more.
What district is Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies in?
Plainfield Academy For The Arts & Advanced Studies is part of Plainfield Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.