The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on North Wildwood School District
North Wildwood School District serves the barrier-island town of North Wildwood, New Jersey, a shore community in Cape May County with a population that swells in the summer and settles into a small year-round base. The district operates a single school, Margaret Mace Elementary School, covering prekindergarten through eighth grade. Families who live in North Wildwood and need high school grades send their children to Wildwood High School, which is part of the neighboring Wildwood City School District, so the picture of K-12 education here is a two-district arrangement.
The district is small, with an enrollment that reflects its compact community. By race and ethnicity, the student body is predominantly white, with a notable share of students who identify as two or more races and a smaller Hispanic population. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, nor were counts of students with individualized education plans or English learner status, which makes it hard to assess the level of economic or learning support the school typically provides.
State testing results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments give a mixed picture of academic performance in math, English language arts, and science. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above varied by grade level, with third grade at the midpoint of the district's own pattern, fourth and sixth grades in a similar range, while fifth and seventh grades showed lower proficiency. Eighth-grade math fell between those. In English language arts, proficiency rates again varied by grade, with fourth and sixth graders reaching a clear majority proficient, while fifth grade was notably lower, and third, seventh, and eighth grades fell in between. Science results were available for fifth and eighth grades; the fifth-grade proficiency rate was modest, and no eighth-grade student reached proficiency in science. The overall proficiency index, which averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, placed the district below the midpoint among Cape May County's districts, where the countywide median was higher. The small number of students tested in each grade means these rates can swing from year to year, so a parent may want to ask the school about trends over several years.
A significant area of concern is chronic absenteeism. The rate of students missing a substantial amount of school placed the district below the midpoint among county districts, meaning a higher-than-median share of students are chronically absent. This is a soft spot families will want to understand. Attendance patterns often connect to broader community and family circumstances, and the school's small size may make individual support more feasible, but the data signals that getting students to school regularly is a challenge.
On the spending side, the district's per-pupil current expenditure is in the upper range of Cape May County's districts. This is a high-spending profile relative to neighbors, which could reflect the costs of running a small district with one school, including fixed expenses spread over a small enrollment.
Housing values in the area served by the district are well above the state median. The cost of entry to the North Wildwood housing market is steep, and mortgage payments on a typical home would consume a large share of typical area income. That combination of high home prices and a modest-sized school district means that households drawn here are generally those committed to the shore lifestyle and who can afford the premium.
No test scores are available for grades beyond eighth because the district's grade band ends there, and no graduation rate applies for the same reason. High school students attend Wildwood High School, which has its own profile and performance data that families will need to examine separately. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent major changes or new initiatives, so the school appears to be in a steady state operationally. For a family considering North Wildwood, the core considerations are the small-school setting through middle school, the uneven test results that warrant a conversation with the school about academic support, the above-average absenteeism rate, and the need to plan for high school in a different district.
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