Northeast Elementary School, Upper Montclair NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Northeast Elementary School

Northeast Elementary School sits in the Upper Montclair neighborhood, a primarily residential pocket of Montclair with its own walkable commercial district, three NJ Transit train stations, and numerous parks and nature reserves including Anderson Park, Brookdale Park, and the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. The area is part of the Montclair Public School District, and the school is open to students from across the neighborhood who are zoned for it. The campus itself shares the community with Bradford Elementary and Buzz Aldrin Middle School, and part of Montclair State University lies within the neighborhood as well.

The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade and is a regular public school. Its enrollment is relatively small for an elementary school serving six grade levels, which means class sizes are likely manageable and the school community is one where families and staff may know each other well. The student body is racially and economically diverse. Roughly half the students are white, with sizable populations of Hispanic students, students of two or more races, Black students, and Asian students. About a sixth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that is lower than the statewide average and points to a generally higher-income catchment area.

On state assessments, Northeast Elementary shows a mixed picture that parents will want to examine closely. In fourth grade, proficiency rates in both math and English language arts are solid, with the majority of students scoring at or above the state standard. Fifth grade results are more moderate, with math proficiency dropping somewhat below the fourth-grade mark and English language arts staying in a similar middle range. Science, which is tested only in fifth grade, shows a weaker result, with a minority of students reaching the proficient level. Third grade English language arts is the softest spot in the school's profile, with a proficiency rate well below half; a parent of a younger reader may want to ask the school about literacy interventions and how reading support is structured for that grade level. When placed against other schools within the same district and county, the overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint relative to districts in Essex County, meaning Northeast Elementary is performing in the upper half of a large and varied county.

Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school has no magnet or charter designation. The data does not include information on disciplinary rates, gifted and talented programs, special education staffing, English learner support, or chronic absenteeism; these are meaningful gaps for any parent assessing whether the school can meet their child's specific needs. The district brief turned up no publicly reported recent changes in curriculum, referendums, or property tax adjustments, so it is unclear whether any major shifts are underway at the district level.

For a family considering Upper Montclair, the housing market is expensive. Home values are well above national and state medians, and the cost of buying a home relative to incomes is high. Rents are also elevated, and renting is notably more expensive than a mortgage payment for a typical home, which means the rental market is especially tight. The neighborhood itself is walkable, well-served by transit, and dense with parks, making it attractive to families who want a suburban feel with easy access to New York City via the Montclair-Boonton Line. The school fits a family that values a small, neighborhood-anchored elementary school with a diverse student body and a solid but not top-tier academic record, with the understanding that some grade-level results deserve a closer look, especially in early literacy and fifth-grade science.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 73% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 66% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 65% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 65% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 69% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 69% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 50% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

This schoolMontclair Public 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-income15%Higher-income49%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income8%Higher-income76%68 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income62%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income7%Higher-income70%63 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income14%Higher-income77%62 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income61%40 pp gap