Orange Avenue School, Cranford NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Orange Avenue School

Orange Avenue School serves students in third through eighth grade as part of the Cranford Public School District. It is a regular public school, and because it does not serve high school grades, it has no graduation rate to report. The school sits in a township that publicly describes itself as a bedroom community to New York City, with a downtown built around the train station and the Rahway River, three business parks that bring inbound commuters, and a main campus of Union County College. Cranford’s civic anchors include a riverwalk, a canoe club that rents kayaks, pedestrian plazas with summer concerts, and a network of parks designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm. The township saw significant downtown investment through Transit-Oriented Development projects, and a Riverfront redevelopment project is underway. We looked for recent district-level events such as referendums, budget changes, or curriculum updates, but publicly reported information on those topics was scarce, so we cannot describe them here.

Academically, Orange Avenue School shows strong results overall. On the state’s NJSLA assessments, students in nearly every grade scored at or above proficiency at rates that place this school in the top quartile relative to other districts in Union County. English language arts performance is consistently solid across all grades, with a large majority of students meeting the proficiency benchmark in each grade level. Math results are also strong in most grades, particularly in third and sixth, and remain healthy in fourth, fifth, and seventh. However, eighth-grade math proficiency drops noticeably compared with the school’s own earlier grades, and this is a point a parent may want to explore further with the school. Science results, which are tested in fifth and eighth grades, show a moderate share of students reaching the state’s proficiency standard.

The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up the next-largest group, followed by Asian, two or more races, and Black students. A very small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the community’s overall affluence. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the records we reviewed, so we cannot characterize those populations.

Cranford’s housing market is expensive. Home values and rents are well above national medians, and the county-level data show a competitive market with a moderate number of active listings and a median listing price that has stayed high. The typical mortgage payment in the area would require a substantial income, and rent consumes a notable portion of household earnings. A family considering this school would be looking at a high-cost community, though one with a dense downtown, rail service to Newark and New York, and a range of parks and recreation.

We found no information on programs such as advanced coursework, arts, or extracurricular offerings, nor on staffing ratios or chronic absenteeism. Discipline data was also absent. Those are gaps that a parent may want to follow up with the school directly. What is clear from the available numbers is that Orange Avenue delivers strong academic results in most subjects and grades, sits in an expensive but amenity-rich township, and serves a student population with very low poverty levels.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 383%

School 83% · District 78% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 69% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 682%

School 82% · District 80% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 48 pts above state median · ▲ 55 pts above county median

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 70% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 473%

School 73% · District 74% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 71% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 684%

School 84% · District 81% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 80% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 74% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Science

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 53% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 849%

School 49% · District 42% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

This schoolCranford 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.