Mckinley Elementary School, North Bergen NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Mckinley Elementary School

McKinley Elementary School is a regular public school in North Bergen, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the North Bergen School District. The school operates as a neighborhood school, drawing its student body from the surrounding community.

The student population is sizeable for a K-8 school and is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with a much smaller share of white and Asian students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need. Data on the share of students with disabilities or those learning English was not available; a parent may wish to ask the school directly about how it supports those groups.

On state assessments, which are New Jersey’s standardized tests, the school’s results show a pattern that varies by grade and subject. In math, proficiency rates are modest to low across all tested grades, with a noticeable dip in the middle years. The strongest math results come from third grade, while the weakest are in fifth and sixth grades. In English language arts, the picture is more mixed: performance in third, fourth, and fifth grades is modest, but there is a clear uptick in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, where roughly half of students meet the state’s proficiency benchmark. Science results are very low in both tested grades, fifth and eighth, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. Overall, when combined across all subjects and grades, the school’s proficiency index falls within the bottom quarter relative to other school districts in Hudson County. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism was not available.

The community context matters for understanding the school. North Bergen is a densely populated township perched on the Hudson Palisades, known for its steep hills and long commercial corridor along Bergenline Avenue. The town has a high population density and a mix of residential neighborhoods, busy retail streets, and some industrial and medical uses. Housing values in the area are slightly above the statewide average, and rents are consistent with a moderately high-cost metro area. The school itself is located on Liberty Avenue, in what the locale brief describes as one of the township’s varied neighborhoods. No recent parent-relevant changes to the district, such as boundary shifts, new programs, or facility investments, were found in publicly available sources.

For a family considering McKinley Elementary, the picture is one of a high-poverty school where academic outcomes on state tests are generally low, with a notable exception in upper-grade English. The math results across nearly every grade are a soft spot, and the science results are very soft. The relatively stronger ELA performance in middle school suggests that some students are gaining literacy skills after the early grades, but a parent may want to look into what support structures are in place for math and science and how the school addresses the gap between its elementary and middle school outcomes. The school’s demographic profile reflects the surrounding neighborhood, and the community itself is urban, dense, and walkable along the main commercial strip, though the steep topography can make some routes difficult. Families who value a neighborhood school with a consistent staff and a K-8 span that avoids a middle school transition may find that convenient, but they will want to learn more about the school’s academic support and enrichment offerings, which were not detailed in the available data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 34%

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

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 28% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 620%

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

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

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 27% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 15% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 28% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 40% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 39% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 41% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 45% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 49% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 17% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 83%

School 3% · District 8% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 8 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 5Lower-income25%Higher-income33%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income69%Higher-income30%38 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income51%Higher-income50%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income17%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income20%0 pp gap