The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Thomas Jefferson Elementary School
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in North Arlington, a densely settled borough at the southern edge of Bergen County. The school is one of five in the North Arlington School District, and with about 170 students it is the smallest of the district’s elementary buildings by a meaningful margin. The student body is roughly half white and half Hispanic, with small numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students, and about a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is a regular public school; it is not a charter, magnet, or Title I school according to the data available.
The building sits on Prospect Avenue, integrated into the borough’s street grid rather than set apart on a suburban campus. North Arlington itself is a compact, urbanized place with a mix of residential blocks, commercial strips along Belleville Turnpike and Ridge Road, and a large cemetery that covers nearly an eighth of the borough’s land. The town was recognized by Money magazine as one of its best places to live, and the district’s Roosevelt Elementary School has earned a National Blue Ribbon award. Holy Cross Cemetery, the FedEx freight distribution facility approved a few years ago, and the school district itself are among the larger local employers. Housing values in the area are elevated, consistent with Bergen County’s prices, and the local housing stock has seen steady appreciation.
On state assessments, Thomas Jefferson’s results in English language arts are solid across all three tested grades. In math, performance is more mixed. Fourth graders posted a notably higher proficiency rate, while third and fifth graders were lower, and overall the school’s combined proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Bergen County. Fifth graders take a science assessment, and here the share of students reaching proficiency is quite low. That subject result is based on a small group of students, but the pattern is clear enough that a parent may want to ask the school about science instruction and support. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether this year’s numbers represent a change from prior years.
The school offers no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Information on chronic absenteeism, special education enrollment, and English learner enrollment was not present in the data provided. Similarly, the district brief shows no recent major changes such as a referendum, curriculum overhaul, or tax shift that would affect a family’s decision. Participation rates for the state tests were not reported, though that is not unusual for small schools where the counts are low enough that reporting the rate could risk identifying individual students.
For a family considering Thomas Jefferson, the picture is one of a small neighborhood elementary school in an established, dense borough. The reading proficiency rates are a clear strength, and the school’s size means children are likely to be well known to staff. The science outcome and the middle-of-the-pack math performance for some grades are areas worth a conversation with the principal or a visit to see how the school addresses them. The lack of publicly reported data on special education and English learner services makes it harder to assess those supports without direct inquiry. The borough itself offers a walkable, built-up environment with a range of local businesses and a fairly high cost of housing, and the district provides a single pathway from this elementary school through the middle school and high school within the same system.
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