Robert L. Craig School, Moonachie NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Robert L. Craig School

RobertL. Craig School is the only public school in Moonachie, a small borough in Bergen County’s Meadowlands region. It serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade, after which Moonachie families send their children to Wood-Ridge High School under a sending-and-receiving arrangement. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it sits within the residential fabric of the borough, near Borough Hall and the main road through town.

The student body is modest in size. Hispanic students make up the largest group, followed by white students and Asian students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The overall financial context of the community is one of high housing costs: Moonachie sits in an expensive part of Bergen County, and the local housing market is tight, with homes spending a short time on the market and prices well above national benchmarks. The borough is compact and predominantly residential, with Teterboro Airport nearby and convenient highway access for commuters to New York City.

Academically, the picture is mixed. On state assessments, Robert L. Craig School shows a clear strength in English language arts. Across tested grades, the share of students reaching proficiency is consistently strong, with particularly high results in the upper elementary and middle school grades. Math performance is more modest, with proficiency rates that are lower than the ELA results, though still in a range that many schools in the state would consider solid. The most notable soft spot is in science. The share of fifth graders reaching proficiency is fairly low, and the share of eighth graders doing so is very small. Given the school’s overall proficiency index relative to districts in Bergen County, it sits below the midpoint of its peers, a position driven largely by the math and science scores.

The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as budget votes, curriculum shifts, or major referendums. That, combined with the school’s size and single-campus structure, suggests a stable, straightforward environment. There is no high school on site, so families who stay in the district through eighth grade should plan for the transition to Wood-Ridge, a neighboring district with its own academic profile. For residents weighing a move into Moonachie, the school offers a tight-knit, preK-8 setting with strong literacy instruction, but the math and science results, particularly at the upper grade levels, are areas a parent may want to explore further with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 61%

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

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 26 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 76%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 576%

School 76% · District 76%

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 788%

School 88% · District 88%

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

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 83%

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

Science

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 37%

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

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 9%

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

This schoolMoonachie 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-income76%Higher-income75%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income73%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income77%Higher-income73%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income83%Higher-income95%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income59%Higher-income58%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income67%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income64%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income64%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income57%12 pp gap