Franklin Elementary School, N Bergen NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Franklin Elementary School

Franklin Elementary School in North Bergen is a regular public school serving first through eighth grade. It is part of the North Bergen School District and sits in a densely populated Hudson County township known for its steep hills, heavy traffic, and the bustling commercial corridor of Bergenline Avenue. The school’s student body is large for a single-building elementary and middle school combination, and it serves a population that is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with very small numbers of white, Asian, and Black students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a community where housing costs, while below the national average for large urban centers, still demand a high rent-to-income ratio.

The academic picture at Franklin is mixed and uneven by grade. In English language arts, the strongest results appear in fourth grade, where roughly half of students scored proficient or above on the state NJSLA assessment. Seventh and eighth grade ELA results also showed around two in five students reaching that bar. In math, proficiency rates were notably lower across all tested grades, with the highest rates in fourth grade and the lowest in fifth grade. Science results were the weakest area; in both fifth and eighth grade, the share of students scoring proficient or above was very small. The school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Hudson County. For a family weighing this school, the data points to real academic challenges, particularly in math and science, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what supports are in place.

Franklin is a neighborhood school in a township without a single downtown; commercial and civic life spreads along Bergenline Avenue and across topographically separated sections. The school itself appears to be one of several elementary and middle schools distributed across the township’s neighborhoods, a pattern common in dense, hilly municipalities where walking zones are constrained by steep slopes. The district’s strategic priorities or recent programmatic changes were not surfaced in publicly available material, so a parent interested in recent curriculum or support initiatives may need to contact the district directly.

Because Franklin serves students through eighth grade but no higher, there is no high school graduation rate to report for this campus. Students move on to North Bergen High School after completing eighth grade. The absence of a graduation rate here is a function of the grade band, not a missing data point. For a family focused on the elementary and middle school years, Franklin offers a single-building experience from first through eighth grade, which means siblings can stay at the same school for a long stretch. The peer environment is shaped by a large, economically diverse student body, with the majority of families sharing a similar socioeconomic profile. The housing market in North Bergen is dense and expensive, with home values and rents that reflect proximity to New York City, and the township’s population growth has been modest overall, with recent estimates showing a slight decline.

In sum, Franklin Elementary School is a large, diverse K-8 public school in a dense urban township where the academic results vary significantly by subject and grade, with ELA showing occasional bright spots and math and science representing clear weaknesses. It is a school that fits a family looking for a long-term neighborhood option through middle school, but the performance data suggests a need for close attention to academic support, especially in math and science.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 34% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 32% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 28% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 23% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 27% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 15% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 28% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 40% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 39% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 41% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 45% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 49% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 17% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 8% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

This schoolNorth Bergen 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 4Lower-income50%Higher-income42%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income46%17 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income36%0 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income59%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income60%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income50%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income36%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income14%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income41%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income8%13 pp gap