William Shemin Midtown Community School #8, Bayonne NJ

Original Research by School Decision on William Shemin Midtown Community School #8

William Shemin Midtown Community School #8 is a regular public school in Bayonne, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Bayonne School District, which covers this densely populated peninsula city in Hudson County. Bayonne is a dense, mixed-use urban environment where residential neighborhoods sit alongside maritime and industrial activity, including port operations at Port Jersey and the Cape Liberty Cruise Port. The Broadway shopping corridor functions as a commercial spine, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail runs through the city, providing transit connections to Jersey City and beyond. The school sits in this setting, drawing its attendance from the surrounding midtown neighborhood.

The student body is large for a pre-K through eighth grade school, and the composition is varied. Just over a third of students are white, around a third are Hispanic, about a fifth are Black, and the remaining share is Asian, multiracial, or American Indian or Alaska Native. A very substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need in the school community. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available for this report, so a family may want to ask the school directly about those support programs.

State testing results present a mixed picture that changes notably by grade level and subject. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through eight are below the midpoint when measured against other districts in Hudson County. The share of students meeting state benchmarks in math is moderate in the early elementary grades and declines steadily as students move up, reaching a low point in eighth grade. This pattern suggests that students who are not solidly on track in math early may struggle to catch up as the curriculum advances.

Reading and English language arts results follow a different trajectory. In third through fifth grades, the share of students scoring proficient is roughly similar to the lower math results. But beginning in sixth grade, proficiency jumps to a level that would be considered a strength in many settings, and it remains there through seventh and eighth grades. Students at this school appear to find stronger success in literacy once they reach middle school. Families may want to ask how the school supports literacy in the lower grades to see if those gains for older students extend down.

Science results are low in both tested grades, fifth and eighth, and the eighth-grade science proficiency rate is particularly soft. This is an area a parent would want to explore further with the school, especially for a student with strong science interests who will move on to high school needing that foundation.

Bayonne has seen population growth over the past several census periods, and the former Military Ocean Terminal has been redeveloped with new housing and the Cape Liberty Cruise Port, which has spurred additional development. The city continues to evolve as a transit-connected urban center. The district itself does not appear to have had recent major upheavals or sweeping policy changes reported in public sources.

Because this school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Students from Midtown move on to Bayonne High School, which is part of the same district. For a family weighing the fit of this school, the central consideration is the academic pattern. Elementary math and early literacy results give a family something to investigate. The middle school English language arts results show that strong instruction exists in the building. The high level of economic need among the student body is a characteristic of the community that this school serves, and it means that state and federal resources directed to high-poverty schools are likely in place here, though specific program details are not in the data provided. The setting is urban and transit-accessible, and the school is woven into the fabric of a city with a working waterfront and a longstanding industrial base.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 43% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 31% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 33% · ▲ 1 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 31% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 21%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 37% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 53% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 50% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 22% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 11% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolBayonne School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income52%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income48%Higher-income43%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income37%Higher-income48%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income56%Higher-income79%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income74%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income58%Higher-income74%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income35%Higher-income52%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income41%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income35%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income52%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income23%Higher-income37%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income18%3 pp gap