1
What advice would you give to incoming students at Robert Waters Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
983
Elementary
DISTRICT 588 · STATE 405
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·UNION CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341638002924
Robert Waters Elementary School
2800 SUMMIT AVE, UNION CITY, NJ 07087 · (201) 348-5925 · Hudson County
GRADES PK–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL983 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 59% of New Jersey public elementary schools
- CTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats 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
13.1:1
75 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.2:1 · STATE 11.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
84%
824 students
DISTRICT 78% · 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 | 25 | 3% |
| Kindergarten | 93 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 133 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 138 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 136 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 163 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 141 | 14% |
| Grade 6 | 154 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (93) is 40% smaller than its 6th grade class (154).
Student demographics
6%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 10% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Robert Waters Elementary School→Union Hill Middle School
Based on grade levels within Union City School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
46.2%
NJ avg 53.1% . +2.1pp since 2023
Math
40.1%
NJ avg 41.6% . +9.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 40 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores are up about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 9 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 46.2% | 40.1% |
| 2023-24 | 44.1% | 30.8% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of NJ schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
35.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
20.3%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+15.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 36% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 20% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 15 points, placing it in New Jersey's top 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 Robert Waters Elementary School
Robert Waters Elementary School's state test result (35.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Waters Elementary School this school | 983 | 83.8% | 35.5% |
| Anna L. Klein GUTTENBERG | 977 | 82.8% | 31.4% |
| First Avenue School NEWARK | 1,084 | 85.9% | 39.1% |
| George Washington Elementary School UNION CITY | 776 | 82.0% | 32.6% |
| Thomas A Edison Elementary School UNION CITY | 767 | 83.8% | 40.6% |
| Abington Avenue School NEWARK | 842 | 89.4% | 24.1% |
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 Robert Waters Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Hudson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 35.5% | #845 of 1,290 | #41 of 84 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 40.1% | #791 of 1,319 ▲ 126 | #30 of 84 ▲ 12 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.2% | #807 of 1,319 ▲ 1 | #45 of 84 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 983 | #15 of 1,562 | #4 of 88 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.1:1 | #1,111 of 1,390 | #63 of 87 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 6.0% | #1,387 of 1,392 | #85 of 87 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 83.8% | #151 of 1,481 | #19 of 88 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.5% | #307 of 798 | #35 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
983
-19 (-2%) vs 2020
-8% since 1990-91, when it was 1,074
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
was 14.1:1
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 | 983 | 75 | 13.1:1 | 84% (824) |
| 2023-24 | 1,019 | N/A | N/A | 88% (897) |
| 2022-23 | 976 | 71 | 13.8:1 | 88% (859) |
| 2020-21 | 1,002 | 71 | 14.1:1 | 61% (608) |
| 2017-18 | 1,137 | 71.4 | 15.9:1 | 95% (1,084) |
| 2015-16 | 1,138 | 69 | 16.5:1 | 97% (1,099) |
| 2010-11 | 1,013 | 55 | 18.4:1 | 96% (968) |
| 2000-01 | 1,357 | 87 | 15.6:1 | 85% (1,147) |
| 1990-91 | 1,074 | 66 | 16.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Robert Waters Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 14% (1,137 to 983); teachers up 5% (71.4 to 75).
About Robert Waters Elementary School
Robert Waters Elementary School is a large elementary school in New Jersey, with an address in UNION CITY. The school's 983 students are in pre-K through 6. Statewide, elementary schools in New Jersey average about 405 students each.
Union City School District is responsible for 14 schools, Robert Waters Elementary School included, with 11,519 students in all.
Hispanic students are the large majority at Robert Waters Elementary School, with 97% of enrollment. In Hudson County overall, about 41% of residents are Hispanic. The chance that two students picked at random at Robert Waters Elementary School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 6%.
Robert Waters Elementary School's 75 full-time-equivalent teachers put its ratio at 13.1:1. For comparison, elementary schools in New Jersey average 11.4:1. Eligibility for subsidized school meals is 84%. The gap from the 68% average for public schools in Hudson County is 16 points.
allk12 grades Robert Waters Elementary School a B. The grade compares the school only with New Jersey public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Robert Waters Elementary School posts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 35.5%. Schools with its free or reduced-price lunch share in New Jersey are predicted to post 20.3%, so the school is 15.3 points ahead and in the state's top 10%.
Within Hudson County, median household income is about $91,795, 49% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 11% of people live in poverty. Federal data list 130 public schools in Hudson County, with a combined enrollment of about 86,216.
The closest public school to Robert Waters Elementary School is Union City High School, about 0.1 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Among 7 nearby schools that report test results, Robert Waters Elementary School ranks 4th on proficiency.
Locale: Suburb: Large. In NCES terms, the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over 4 years, enrollment stayed close to where it was, going from 1,002 to 983. By 2024-25, the school had 13.1 students per teacher, compared with 14.1 in 2020-21.
Conversations here can range across science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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 Union City School District
- Union City High SchoolHigh · 3,147 students
- Emerson Middle SchoolMiddle · 999 students
- Theodore Roosevelt Elementary SchoolElementary · 871 students
- Union Hill Middle SchoolMiddle · 865 students
- George Washington Elementary SchoolElementary · 776 students
- Thomas A Edison Elementary SchoolElementary · 767 students
Other schools in UNION CITY
- Union City High SchoolHigh · 3,147 students
- Emerson Middle SchoolMiddle · 999 students
- Theodore Roosevelt Elementary SchoolElementary · 871 students
- Union Hill Middle SchoolMiddle · 865 students
- George Washington Elementary SchoolElementary · 776 students
- Thomas A Edison Elementary SchoolElementary · 767 students
Nearby schools
- Union City High School0.1 mi · 3,147
- Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center for Early Childhood Education0.3 mi · 300
- Daniel Webster School0.4 mi · 406
- McKinley Elementary School0.4 mi · 296
- Jefferson Elementary School0.4 mi · 272
- Jose Marti STEM Academy0.5 mi · 625
Frequently asked questions
About Robert Waters Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Robert Waters Elementary School?
Robert Waters Elementary School enrolls approximately 983 students in grades PK-06.
Is Robert Waters Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Robert Waters Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-06.
How many students per teacher at Robert Waters Elementary School?
Approximately 13.1:1 students per teacher at Robert Waters Elementary School.
How diverse is Robert Waters Elementary School?
Robert Waters Elementary School reports a student body of 1% White, 97% Hispanic, 1% Black, 1% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Is Robert Waters Elementary School public or private?
Robert Waters Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Union City School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.