Belmar Elementary, Belmar NJ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Belmar Elementary

Belmar Elementary is the lone public school in the Belmar Elementary School District, serving Pre-K through eighth grade in a small, dense Jersey Shore borough. It shares a single building with the district administration, and because the district does not operate a high school, families in Belmar send their children elsewhere for grades 9 through 12, typically to nearby sending-receiving districts such as Manasquan, Asbury Park, or others through a tuition arrangement.

The student body is about four hundred children, composed mostly of Hispanic and white students, with a smaller share of students who identify as two or more races or as Black. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a relatively higher level of economic need than many neighboring Monmouth County communities. Where a school with this profile often sees that economic diversity concentrated in early grades, here it is spread across all grade levels.

State assessment results for the most recent testing year show a mix of strength and soft spots. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight cluster broadly near or above the midpoint of schools statewide, with the fifth-grade and eighth-grade results reaching into the 60 percent range. Math tells a more varied story. Third and fifth graders performed solidly, with proficiency above 60 percent, but sixth grade dropped and eighth grade showed no students reaching the proficient level. Science results were low in both tested grades, fifth and eighth. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint among districts in Monmouth County, meaning that on average its students are not achieving at the same rate as students in many nearby districts. A parent may want to ask the school about the support structures in place for middle-grade math and science instruction and about the eighth-grade transition to high school.

The building itself is woven into the fabric of Belmar, a town that is walkable, busy in summer and quiet in winter, with a rebuilt boardwalk, a municipal marina, and a train station on the North Jersey Coast Line. The housing market in the zip code reflects the desirability of the shore location; home values are well above national averages, and rents have been rising. For a household buying in, the cost of a home relative to income is steep. The supply of homes for sale is moderate, and homes do not sit long on the market.

Because Belmar Elementary serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data includes no information on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, discipline, or course access. The district brief turned up no recent strategic changes or major initiatives publicly reported, so the school appears to be operating without a recent high-profile shift in direction.

What Belmar Elementary offers is a tight, neighborhood-grounded elementary and middle school experience in a charming and expensive shore town, with a student body that reflects the town's diversity and economic range. A family considering this school should look into the high school placement that follows eighth grade, because the sending arrangement will shape the secondary pathway. The academic picture is mixed: solid reading results in most grades, but math and science results that fall off in the upper grades, a pattern the school may already be addressing.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 11 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 57%

even with state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 13%

even with state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

This schoolBelmar Elementary 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-income32%Higher-income86%54 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income70%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income81%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income58%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income52%Higher-income63%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income95%60 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income50%Higher-income77%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income70%41 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income88%38 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income50%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income56%18 pp gap