Veterans Middle School, North Arlington NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Veterans Middle School

Veterans Middle School is a regular public school in North Arlington, New Jersey, serving grades six through eight within the North Arlington School District. It sits at the southern edge of Bergen County, bordering Hudson and Essex counties, in a densely populated borough that combines residential streets, commercial corridors, and a large historic cemetery. The school’s enrollment is moderate for a middle school, and the student body is primarily Hispanic and white, with small shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so the school serves a mix of economic backgrounds.

Academically, Veterans Middle School’s performance varies by subject and grade. Students generally score better in English language arts than in math across all three grades. In the lower middle-school grades, a majority of students meet or exceed state proficiency standards in reading and writing, though the share drops noticeably by eighth grade. Math proficiency is more uneven; it falls off sharply in the final year, with fewer than half of students scoring at the proficient level in any grade. Science results in eighth grade are very low, an area a parent may want to explore with the school. When measured against other districts in Bergen County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects places it in the bottom quarter of the county. That county includes many wealthy, high-performing districts, so the comparison is a demanding one. The school’s own results point to a pattern of solid literacy work that weakens in the upper grades, and a consistent challenge in math and science.

The community context matters here. North Arlington is not a wealthy suburb like many in Bergen County. Its housing values run above the national average but below the county median. The rental market is pricey relative to local incomes. The borough has a working industrial base: a FedEx freight facility, a large cemetery that provides jobs but pays no property taxes, and small local businesses. The school district’s five schools are spread through the borough’s tight street grid, not isolated on a campus. No recent major curriculum changes, referendums, or tax shifts were publicly reported for the district, so the academic picture you see is the current steady state.

For a family considering this middle school, the central takeaway is a mixed academic profile with a known weakness in math and science. The school operates in a dense, diverse borough where housing is expensive by national standards but moderate for Bergen County. The student body is economically mixed, and the school is a regular public school with no special charter or magnet status. Data on special education enrollment, English learner services, discipline, and course offerings were not available in the materials used to write this description, so those are gaps a parent may want to investigate directly with the school. The school’s performance in ELA is its strongest area, particularly in sixth and seventh grades. If your priority is a middle school that supports reading and writing, Veterans Middle School shows a reasonable track record. If strong math and science outcomes are critical, the numbers warrant closer questioning.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 647%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 35%

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

English language arts

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 67%

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

Grade 769%

School 69% · District 69%

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Science

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

This schoolNorth Arlington 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 6Lower-income51%Higher-income80%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income65%Higher-income72%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income51%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income53%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income39%9 pp gap