The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in Math. The lowest is 49% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Mckenzie School
McKenzie School is one of three schools in the East Rutherford School District, serving children from pre-kindergarten through third grade. It is a regular public school, and after third grade, students move on to another district school for the upper elementary and middle grades. With an enrollment that is moderate in size for a primary school, McKenzie’s student body is notably diverse. A little over two-fifths of students are of Hispanic or Latino background, and roughly a third are white. Asian students make up a substantial share, and smaller groups of Black students, students of two or more races, and American Indian or Alaska Native students round out the community. More than two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly used indicator of economic need.
Because McKenzie only reaches third grade, the only state test results available come from that single grade level. On the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, third graders at the school posted a math proficiency rate that placed above half of students, while in English language arts just under half of third graders met the proficiency benchmark. When measured against other districts in Bergen County, McKenzie’s overall proficiency across tested subjects falls below the midpoint of the comparison group. With test data limited to one grade, this snapshot is narrow. A parent considering the school may want to look into how the district’s upper elementary and middle school students perform, as that picture will matter for the full trajectory. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.
The school sits in East Rutherford, a small borough of roughly four square miles in Bergen County, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. The town is a mix: residential streets with single-family homes and small multi-family buildings in the older core, and then a dramatic contrast in the Meadowlands area, where the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex and MetLife Stadium anchor a landscape of highways and vast parking lots. The residential part of town where McKenzie is located has a suburban feel, but the borough as a whole is auto-oriented. Walkable street life is limited to the older municipal center near Borough Hall. Major employers include the American Dream complex, the Hudson Group headquartered in town, and Cambrex Corporation. The Meadowlands Sports Complex also generates significant employment. East Rutherford is also home to a Federal Reserve Bank currency processing center. The borough has seen notable growth and change, with the long-delayed American Dream mall opening in recent years and MetLife Stadium preparing to host matches for an upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Housing in the area is expensive. Home values in the zip code that includes the school are well above the national median and sit above the state benchmark as well. Rents are also high. For families considering moving to the district, the housing market is competitive, with limited inventory and strong demand. Affordability is a real consideration: the estimated rent-to-income ratio is elevated, meaning housing costs consume a large share of typical area income.
No recent district-level changes—such as boundary shifts, program additions, or leadership transitions—were found in public reporting, so the district appears to have been operating on a stable footing in the near term.
McKenzie School is a neighborhood primary school in a demographically diverse community within a borough that is both residential and a regional destination for commerce and entertainment. For families with children in the early grades, it offers a familiar entry point into the East Rutherford district, with the understanding that test performance in third grade was mixed relative to county peers, and that the full academic picture will unfold in the grades to come.
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