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North Star Academy Charter School

NEWARK · NJ · North Star Academy Charter School · Public charter · K-12 combined

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📖23 AP courses

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 23 AP courses offered — Elite
  • 🔢 7 calculus classes · 4 physics · 9 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 70th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Top 0.2% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 83% (Bottom 31% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

💡

How North Star Academy Charter School compares for families

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor at the 70th percentile nationally with 23 AP courses.
  • LocallyNJ students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+12 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Alif Muhammad Wia School, Essex County Newark Tech, Marion P. Thomas Charter School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

70th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
23
Subject breadth not reported
Advanced math classes
16
7 calculus · 9 advanced
Lab science classes
13
4 physics · 9 chemistry
Other rigor signals
No dual-enrollment or gifted program reported

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Top 0.2% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
1,410
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
85.7
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 31% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
83%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
258
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
42.2%
Elevated — a quarter or more of teachers are in years 1-2. Often correlates with school instability.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
6.4%
Around the national average. Worth watching.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

86.7%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
3357:1
Well above the US median — a real constraint on individualized college and course planning.
Counselor FTE
2.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
483
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Grade 12 went from 257 in 2021 to 340 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+32.3%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +2.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 6,714 students:

2025
6,863
2027
7,170
2029
7,491

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue upside

At $19,744 per student in district revenue, the 777 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $15,341,088/year in additional funding.

District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Alif Muhammad Wia School
Newark
Private 0.3 104 -43.5%
Essex County Newark Tech
Newark
Public 0.6 606 +7.1%
Marion P. Thomas Charter School
NEWARK
Public · charter 0.6 561 +25.8%
Newark School of Global Studies
Newark
Public 0.7 377 +78.7%
Great Oaks Legacy Charter School
Newark
Public · charter 0.7 404 +27.4%
Arts High School
NEWARK
Public 0.8 611 +1.7%
Science Park High School
NEWARK
Public 0.8 861 +6.3%
ESSEX CO JDC
NEWARK
Public 0.8 73

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