The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Dr. John Grieco Elementary School
Dr. John Grieco Elementary School serves first and second graders in Englewood, part of the Englewood Public School District in Bergen County. Because it only covers these early elementary grades, several metrics that apply to older schools simply do not exist here. There is no graduation rate, no course access data for high school level offerings, and no chronic absenteeism rate was reported. The school’s purpose is foundational literacy and numeracy for the youngest students, and that shapes everything about it.
The academic picture comes from state testing in third grade, which is the first year New Jersey administers the NJSLA assessments. Since Grieco’s students are in first and second grade, the testing results you see belong to the cohort that left Grieco after second grade and took the tests in their third-grade year at another school within the district. Those results show that in English language arts, a share of students met the state’s proficiency benchmark, while in math, a smaller share did so. The district’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, measured against other Bergen County districts, lands in the bottom quartile. A parent considering Grieco should know that these are the district’s outcomes, not a direct measure of instruction inside Grieco’s first- and second-grade classrooms, but they do give a sense of the academic trajectory students in Englewood typically follow.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a Black cohort making up most of the rest, and very small numbers of White, Asian, multiracial, and other students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school’s enrollment is concentrated entirely in grades one and two, and it is one of the earliest stops in the district’s elementary sequence.
Englewood is a residential city in Bergen County with a walkable downtown along Palisade Avenue, a mix of historic homes and multifamily buildings, and a population that is dense enough to support a lively commercial corridor. The city has a nature preserve with walking trails, a hospital that is a major employer, and bus connections to New York City. Housing values in the area are high relative to national benchmarks, and rents are also elevated. A new master plan was adopted recently, signaling active planning for the future.
The district itself has made several recent changes that matter to families. It adopted a new K-5 literacy curriculum based on the science of reading, replacing an earlier balanced literacy approach. A five-year strategic plan covering academic excellence, social-emotional learning, equity, and community engagement is in place through 2028. The most recent school budget included a tax levy increase, which raised the school tax rate and added a modest annual cost for the average homeowner. These moves point to a district that is working on curriculum alignment and long-term planning, but also one where property taxpayers are seeing the financial side of those investments.
Grieco Elementary School is a small, early-grades building serving a predominantly low-income, Hispanic and Black student population in a densely settled commuter city. Its role is to build the academic foundation for the years ahead, and families should look to the district’s broader elementary and middle school outcomes to understand what that foundation leads to. The school itself does not generate the kind of data that older schools do, so parents will want to engage directly with the school and district to learn about classroom experience, class size, early literacy support, and how the transition to third grade works.
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