The top reported proficiency rate is 34% in English language arts. The lowest is 1% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Walter O. Krumbiegel Middle School
Walter O. Krumbiegel Middle School is a regular public school in Hillside, New Jersey, serving only seventh and eighth graders. The school sits within the Hillside Public School District, a seven-school system distributed across this dense inner-ring suburb of Newark.
Hillside itself is a tightly built township of residential blocks, commercial strips along Route 22, and light industrial uses. The town has no train station of its own, though NJ Transit bus lines and nearby rail stations in Union and Elizabeth provide links to the region. The civic center clusters around the municipal complex at Liberty and Hillside Avenues, but there is no traditional downtown. Schools are spread out rather than clustered. Kean University’s East Campus occupies a former private school site in town. The everyday texture is that of a place with a mix of single-family homes, mid-century suburban development, and working-class and white-collar histories. The population has grown modestly over recent decades, but with only a few square miles of land area, large-scale new development is not a feature of the landscape.
Krumbiegel Middle School enrolls a student body that is majority Black and over a third Hispanic, with a much smaller share of White students and a handful of Asian and multiracial students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of the economic context families bring to the school. Data on how many students receive special education services or are English learners was not available in the state reporting, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
On the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, the school’s results are low relative to districts in Union County, placing in the bottom quartile on an overall proficiency index. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was in the single digits for eighth grade and only slightly higher for seventh grade. In English language arts, roughly a quarter of eighth graders and about two fifths of seventh graders met the proficient threshold. Science results for eighth graders were very low, with virtually no students reaching the state’s proficiency standard. These are the most recent results available, and they represent a significant challenge for the school. A family considering this school would want to understand what supports are in place for students who arrive below grade level, and how the school works to move those numbers over time.
Because Krumbiegel is a middle school serving only grades seven and eight, there is no graduation rate to report. That metric will apply later when these students reach Hillside High School, which is part of the same district. Data on chronic absenteeism and discipline were also not available in this profile, leaving an incomplete picture of daily conditions inside the building.
The housing context in Hillside offers some perspective. Typical home values place a house near the upper edge of what many regional families can afford, and rents are similarly elevated relative to national medians. The area’s median listing price for homes has held fairly steady, and the market shows a modest number of active listings, which suggests some turnover but not a fast-moving seller’s market. The county-level unemployment rate is near the national average. These are the broad conditions families would encounter when looking for a home within the attendance zone.
We looked for recent district-level changes that might affect Krumbiegel families, such as curriculum shifts, boundary revisions, or facility plans, but found little of lasting impact in available sources. The district brief did not turn up referendums, leadership changes, or other parent-relevant news in the last several years.
In short, Walter O. Krumbiegel Middle School serves a community with real economic diversity and sits in a township with solid transit connections and a modest housing market. The academic results on state tests are low across all subjects, and the available data leaves gaps around special populations and school climate. A family considering this school would be well served by visiting, asking about intervention programs, and speaking with current parents and staff about how the school addresses its core academic challenge.
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