Harrington Park School, Harrington Park NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Harrington Park School

Harrington Park School is a single public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the small, primarily residential Bergen County borough of Harrington Park. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school is the only one in its district, and students in ninth through twelfth grades attend Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, a regional campus in a neighboring town.

On state assessments, the school posts mostly strong results across the grade levels it tests. In English language arts, proficiency rates are solid throughout: third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade all show a majority of students meeting the standard, with the strongest showing in sixth and seventh grades. Mathematics results are also broadly strong, with high proficiency in third grade, fourth grade, and sixth grade, though the rates step down somewhat in fifth and seventh grades, and eighth grade math marks a notable dip where fewer than half of students reached the proficient level. Science, tested in fifth and eighth grades, shows proficiency at a lower level than the other subjects in both grades. A parent may want to look into the eighth-grade math and science results further with the school to understand the context behind those numbers. Overall, relative to other districts in Bergen County, the school’s combined proficiency across all tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile.

The student body is diverse. About half the enrollment is White, a substantial share is Asian, and smaller shares are Hispanic, two or more races, and Black. Free or reduced-price lunch data was not available, and counts for students with disabilities and English learners were also missing from the data. The district has about six hundred students across grades pre-K through eight, a size that allows for a single-school community feel.

Harrington Park itself is a quiet, low-density suburban borough with limited commercial zoning. The built environment is almost entirely single-family homes on residential streets. There is no walkable downtown; everyday life is car-dependent, though NJ Transit bus service connects the borough to Manhattan. Housing values are high, well above national and state medians, reflecting the area’s desirability and the competitive Bergen County market. The borough’s population has grown modestly in recent years, and the small land area means it is largely built out, so no major new developments were identified.

The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes like boundary shifts, new programs, or leadership turnover; what is publicly reported is a stable, long-running single-school district. Civic anchors in town include Borough Hall and the school itself, with parks and recreational facilities referenced on the borough website.

For a family considering Harrington Park School, the academic picture is one of generally strong performance on state tests, with a few spots that merit a closer look, particularly in middle school math and science. The school serves only through eighth grade, so the high school years happen at a regional campus in a separate town, something to factor into planning. The community is affluent, residential, and quiet, with a high cost of housing and limited commercial life. The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, and the school’s size keeps it a single-building environment where most families in town share the same elementary and middle school experience.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 389%

School 89% · District 89%

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 79%

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

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 678%

School 78% · District 78%

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

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 66%

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

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 75%

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

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 682%

School 82% · District 82%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 781%

School 81% · District 81%

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

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 43%

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

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

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

This schoolHarrington Park 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.