School #13, Clifton NJ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on School #13

School #13 sits in Clifton, a dense North Jersey suburb roughly a fifteen-mile commute from Midtown Manhattan. Clifton is not a quiet bedroom town; it is a regional commercial hub, crisscrossed by Route 3, Route 46, the Garden State Parkway, and other major highways, and it serves as its own retail and employment center. The city is large and varied, with five ZIP codes and neighborhoods ranging from the Main Mall downtown area to residential pockets like Richfield and Rosemawr. It has two NJ Transit train stations, but much of the city is car-oriented, oriented toward highway corridors rather than a single walkable core. The housing market reflects demand typical of a well-connected North Jersey suburb with a mix of commercial and residential fabric.

School #13 itself is a regular public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade. Its enrollment is large enough to fill multiple sections per grade, and the student body is diverse. More than half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the racial and ethnic composition is predominantly Hispanic, followed by a substantial share of White students and smaller groups of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available; a parent may want to ask the school for those numbers directly.

On state assessments, the results show a mixed profile. In math, the share of students meeting proficiency was solid in third grade, fell to around half of students tested in fourth grade, and dropped lower by fifth grade. In English language arts, the pattern was similar but the starting point was lower: third-grade proficiency was well below half, fourth grade reached a similar level to math, and fifth grade slipped again. Fifth-grade science proficiency was also low. The overall picture across tested subjects and grades places School #13 above the midpoint among elementary schools in Passaic County, but the trajectory within the building is worth a close look. A parent may want to discuss with the school how the school supports students moving from the earlier grades into the upper elementary years, where scores tend to soften.

Because School #13 serves only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not offer the high-school-level programs like AP or dual credit that you might look for in an upper school. There is no data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing ratios, so a potential gap in available information exists there.

The district, Clifton Public School District, showed no major recent changes in publicly available records. No new referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax changes surfaced in the search, so a parent should assume a stable administrative context. The lack of a district brief with recent developments is itself information; nothing big appears to be in motion.

For a family considering this school, a few things stand out. The math results in the early grades are a relative strength compared to the county, but the ELA numbers are softer across the board, and the downward trend in both subjects from third to fifth grade suggests a challenge in sustaining skill growth. The school is situated in a large, busy suburb with good commuter access and a competitive housing market. The student body is economically diverse, and the school is a neighborhood public school with no special designation or magnet status. A parent looking for an elementary school within Clifton should weigh the early-grade math performance against the declining upper-grade outcomes and ask about the school's approach to literacy and intervention. The absence of certain data points means a visit and a conversation with the principal would be especially useful.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 47% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 39% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 36% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 44% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 43% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 19% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

This schoolClifton Public 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-income27%Higher-income27%0 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income65%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income53%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income57%Higher-income59%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income73%35 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income59%24 pp gap