Norwood Public School, Norwood NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Norwood Public School

Norwood Public School serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in a single building, making it the only school within the Norwood Public School District. The school enrolls several hundred students, drawing from a small, affluent borough in Bergen County near the New York state line. Norwood is a predominantly residential community with a high median home value, a low density of commercial activity, and a population that largely commutes to work outside the borough. Housing in the surrounding market is expensive and competitive, reflecting the area’s desirability. The district itself has no high school, so students continue to Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan after completing eighth grade.

Academically, Norwood Public School posts results that place it above the midpoint when compared with other districts in Bergen County. The school’s strongest showing is in English language arts. In sixth through eighth grades, the vast majority of tested students meet the state’s proficiency standard, and performance in those grades is especially high. Fourth and fifth grade ELA results are also strong. Math proficiency is solid across most elementary and middle grades, with particular strength in seventh grade. However, eighth grade math is a clear soft spot, with a substantially lower share of students reaching proficiency than in earlier years. That drop is large enough that a parent may want to ask the school about the transition to eighth-grade math content or how the school supports readiness for high school-level courses. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grade, are notably lower than the school’s math and ELA scores in those same grades, another area a family might wish to explore.

The student body is diverse in a way that reflects the borough’s demographic makeup. Roughly equal proportions of Asian and White students make up the largest groups, followed by a smaller Hispanic population. Very few students identify as Black or as members of other racial groups. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is extremely small, a sign of the community’s overall affluence. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported, so there is no publicly available picture of how many students receive special education or language support services. Likewise, chronic absenteeism data was not available, and because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Those gaps do not necessarily indicate problems, but a parent who wants a full picture of student support and attendance patterns would need to get that information directly from the school.

No recent district-level changes or initiatives surfaced in public records, so the school’s programming and operations appear stable in the near term. The school does not appear to offer specialized magnet or career pathways, which is typical for a single elementary-to-middle school that feeds into a regional high school. For families considering Norwood, the academic picture is one of generally strong literacy skills with a need for caution around the middle school math transition and elementary science outcomes, all set within a high-cost, low-poverty community where students move to a separate high school district after eighth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 372%

School 72% · District 72%

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

Grade 472%

School 72% · District 72%

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 54%

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

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 69%

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

Grade 777%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 55%

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

Grade 473%

School 73% · District 73%

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

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 72%

▲ 18 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 694%

School 94% · District 94%

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 788%

School 88% · District 88%

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

Grade 882%

School 82% · District 82%

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

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 31%

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

This schoolNorwood Public 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.