The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 5% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Pine Hill Middle School
Pine Hill is a small, primarily residential borough in Camden County with a suburban texture of single-family homes. The borough absorbed the neighboring municipality of Pine Valley in 2022, adding the famed Pine Valley Golf Club to its territory. The borough’s motto is “Home for a Lifetime.” Public schools are distributed across the borough rather than clustered in a downtown center; there is no concentrated commercial core, and civic functions are spread through the municipality. NJ Transit provides bus service between Turnersville and Camden on a single route, the only public transit connection. The district comprises four schools, and Pine Hill Middle School serves students in grades six through eight.
Pine Hill Middle School is a regular public school. The enrollment is modest for a middle school serving three grade levels. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse; white students make up the largest group, followed by Black, Hispanic, two or more races, and Asian students. The school does not appear to be a magnet or Title I school based on available data, and information on special education and English learner populations was not reported in the data examined.
State testing results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment offer a clear picture of academic performance. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above varies notably by grade. The figure for seventh graders is considerably higher than for sixth graders, and the eighth grade figure falls between the two. In mathematics, proficiency rates are low across all three grades, with the figure for seventh graders above that of sixth graders and eighth graders landing close to the sixth grade level. Science testing is administered only in eighth grade, and the share of eighth graders scoring proficient or above is very small. When placed against the broader field of districts in Camden County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits in the bottom quartile. This is a soft spot a parent would want to look into further with the school, particularly around math and science instruction. The school’s own grade-level results show a wide range in English language arts, which may be worth discussing with the administration as well.
The data on program offerings, discipline, staffing, and attendance was not available, so it is not possible to speak to the breadth of course access or the school climate from that angle. The district has made one recent change that is parent-relevant: it transitioned its pre-kindergarten program from half-day to full-day starting in the 2022-23 school year, a lasting programmatic change for families with young children in the district. The middle school itself does not serve pre-K, but this shift speaks to the district’s direction.
The housing market in the immediate area has seen an upward trend in values, with rents also rising, and the county market shows a moderate pace of sales. The borough’s population has grown slowly but steadily. The 2022 merger added taxable property and a notable landmark to the municipality. Pine Hill had a high property tax rate in recent years, a practical consideration for any family moving into the district.
For a family considering this school, the core takeaway is that Pine Hill Middle School serves a diverse student body in a small, suburban district, but its academic outcomes on state assessments are at the lower end relative to other Camden County districts, with math and science results particularly concerning. The school has a wide spread in English performance across grades that may bear investigation. This is a school where a parent would want to ask about curriculum supports, intervention strategies, and what the school is doing to address the proficiency levels in the tested subjects, especially given that the middle grades are a critical transition period before high school.
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