1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Sonia Sotomayor School #21 right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
499
Elementary
DISTRICT 480 · STATE 405
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PASSAIC CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341254003487
Sonia Sotomayor School #21
225 Madison Street, Passaic, NJ 07055 · (973) 470-5500 · Passaic County
GRADES KG–08ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL499 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 13% of New Jersey public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+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
10.4:1
48 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 11.5:1 · STATE 11.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
100%
499 students
DISTRICT 99% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 72 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 54 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 68 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 41 | 8% |
| Grade 4 | 58 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 47 | 9% |
| Grade 6 | 45 | 9% |
| Grade 7 | 59 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 55 | 11% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 31% larger than its 8th grade class (55).
Student demographics
7%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 12% · 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
Sonia Sotomayor School #21→Passaic High School No. 12
Based on grade levels within Passaic City School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
15.7%
NJ avg 53.1% . +1.5pp since 2023
Math
8.0%
NJ avg 41.6% . -1.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 16 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 8 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 down about 2 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 15.7% | 8.0% |
| 2023-24 | 14.2% | 9.5% |
% 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
11.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
11.4%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-0.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 11% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 11% 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 Sonia Sotomayor School #21
Sonia Sotomayor School #21's state test result (11.0% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonia Sotomayor School #21 this school | 499 | 100.0% | 11.0% |
| Daniel F. Ryan Elementary School No. 19 Passaic | 590 | 99.8% | 19.6% |
| Lord Stirling Community School NEW BRUNSWICK | 436 | 97.0% | 18.2% |
| Roosevelt Elementary School NEW BRUNSWICK | 597 | 97.0% | 14.2% |
| Thomas Jefferson School No. 1 Passaic | 423 | 98.1% | 21.6% |
| Public School Number Five WEST NEW YORK | 570 | 94.2% | 31.9% |
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 Sonia Sotomayor School #21 ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Passaic County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 11.0% | #1,242 of 1,290 | #73 of 87 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 8.0% | #1,280 of 1,319 ▼ 19 | #72 of 87 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 15.7% | #1,269 of 1,319 ▼ 5 | #76 of 87 ▼ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 499 | #410 of 1,562 | #27 of 100 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 10.4:1 | #457 of 1,390 | #21 of 89 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 7.4% | #1,382 of 1,392 | #87 of 89 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 100% | #1 of 1,481 | #1 of 97 |
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
499
-185 (-27%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
10.4:1
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 | 499 | 48 | 10.4:1 | 100% (499) |
| 2023-24 | 539 | 48 | 11.2:1 | 99% (535) |
| 2022-23 | 588 | 47 | 12.5:1 | 100% (588) |
| 2020-21 | 684 | 56 | 12.2:1 | 99% (680) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sonia Sotomayor School #21.
About Sonia Sotomayor School #21
Sonia Sotomayor School #21 is a mid-sized elementary school in Passaic, New Jersey, administered by Passaic City School District. The school enrolls 499 students in kindergarten through 8. Across elementary schools in New Jersey, the average enrollment is about 405.
Passaic City School District (19 schools, 11,877 students) runs Sonia Sotomayor School #21.
The share of students at Sonia Sotomayor School #21 who are Hispanic is 96%. Other students are 3% Black. By comparison, Passaic County residents are about 44% Hispanic. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 7, compared with 70 nationally.
The school had 48 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 10.4:1. The school's 10.4:1 compares with an average of 11.4:1 for elementary schools in New Jersey. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 100%. That rate is above the 61% average among public schools in Passaic County.
Among New Jersey public elementary schools, Sonia Sotomayor School #21 outscored 13%, which works out to a D on the allk12 Grade.
The BeatsExpectations prediction for Sonia Sotomayor School #21 is 11.4%, and its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 11.0%.
For Passaic County, Census Bureau data show the median household earns about $87,522 a year, roughly 31% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting Sonia Sotomayor School #21, Passaic County has 155 public schools.
Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy School No. 20 sits less than a tenth of a mile from Sonia Sotomayor School #21. Within five miles of Sonia Sotomayor School #21, there are at least 8 other public schools. Compared with its nearest neighbors, Sonia Sotomayor School #21 ranks 6th of 8 on average proficiency.
Sonia Sotomayor School #21 has an NCES locale of Suburb: Large.
In 2020-21, Sonia Sotomayor School #21 enrolled 684 students. By 2024-25, that number had fallen to 499. The student-to-teacher ratio went down from 12.2:1 to 10.4:1.
This page is a place to ask questions and share updates about open houses, carpools, and field trips at Sonia Sotomayor School #21. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Passaic City School District
- Passaic High School No. 12High · 2,484 students
- Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25Elementary · 903 students
- William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 11Elementary · 805 students
- Mario Drago School No. 3Elementary · 776 students
- Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6Elementary · 754 students
- Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy School No. 20Middle · 742 students
Other schools in Passaic
- Passaic High School No. 12High · 2,484 students
- Passaic Arts and Science Charter SchoolCombined · 2,175 students
- Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25Elementary · 903 students
- William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 11Elementary · 805 students
- Mario Drago School No. 3Elementary · 776 students
- Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 6Elementary · 754 students
Nearby schools
- Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy School No. 200.0 mi · 742
- Casimir Pulaski School No. 80.2 mi · 77
- Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 60.2 mi · 754
- William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 110.3 mi · 805
- Passaic Arts and Science Charter School0.4 mi · 2,175
- Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering0.4 mi · 650
Frequently asked questions
About Sonia Sotomayor School #21How many students attend Sonia Sotomayor School #21?
Sonia Sotomayor School #21 enrolls approximately 499 students in grades KG-08.
What grades does Sonia Sotomayor School #21 serve?
Sonia Sotomayor School #21 serves grades KG-08.
How many students per teacher at Sonia Sotomayor School #21?
Approximately 10.4:1 students per teacher at Sonia Sotomayor School #21.
What is the student diversity at Sonia Sotomayor School #21?
Student demographics at Sonia Sotomayor School #21 are roughly 96% Hispanic, 3% Black, 0% Two or more.
Who oversees Sonia Sotomayor School #21?
Sonia Sotomayor School #21 is overseen by Passaic City School District in Passaic County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.