Merchantville Elementary School, Merchantville NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Merchantville Elementary School

Merchantville Elementary School serves as the sole public school within the Merchantville School District, a single-school district covering pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in this small, compact Camden County borough. The school sits near the downtown area, integrated into the community's Victorian-era residential core rather than on a separated campus. Families here know that after eighth grade, students are sent to Haddon Heights High School in a neighboring district for high school.

The student body reflects a mix of backgrounds. White students make up roughly half the enrollment, with a substantial share of Hispanic students and a smaller share of Black students. About two out of every five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a meaningful figure that positions the school above the midpoint among its Camden County peers for economic need but within a typical range for a working- and middle-class community.

On state testing, the picture is uneven and a parent will want to look closely at the grade-level pattern. In English language arts, the school shows a clear upward trajectory as students get older. Performance in the early elementary grades is modest, with roughly three in ten students meeting the state's proficiency standard in third grade. By fifth grade that share climbs to just over half. By eighth grade, nearly three out of five students score proficient, a mark that stands as a clear strength for the upper grades. Math tells a different story. Proficiency rates hover in the low to mid twenties for grades three through five and then tick up to the low forties in sixth and seventh grade. But eighth grade math results drop sharply, with only a small share of students meeting the bar. This pattern raises a question a family would want to take up with the school, especially if they have a child heading into middle school math. Science results follow a similar arc: about one in three fifth graders are proficient, while eighth grade science proficiency falls to a much lower level.

Overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades places the school below the midpoint relative to districts in Camden County. That comparison matters because the district is its own single-school entity, so families weighing the school against larger neighboring districts will see a gap in aggregate scores. Still, the upper-grade English results suggest that the school can move students forward, and a parent should investigate what supports are in place for math and science in the middle grades.

The borough itself is fully built out at a small size with essentially no undeveloped land and a population that has been flat for decades. Housing values in the zip code sit well below the state benchmark but have risen notably in the past year. The local housing market shows a limited supply of homes, with active listings increasing and median days on market relatively short. Rents are below the cost of a monthly mortgage, making the area more accessible for renters than buyers.

Because this is a single-school PK-8 district, there are no additional school choice options within the district itself. The district appears stable, with consistently approved budgets and no major recent changes surfaced in public reporting. No data on discipline, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism was available, so a family would want to ask about those areas directly. There is also no reported information on special education identification rates or English learner counts, which is a gap worth noting when considering what support services look like day to day.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

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

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 54%

even with state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 42%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 59%

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

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 33%

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

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

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

This schoolMerchantville 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income13%Higher-income39%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income40%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income54%Higher-income55%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income55%33 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income52%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income72%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income13%Higher-income42%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income10%Higher-income35%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income27%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income64%43 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income48%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income7%Higher-income18%12 pp gap