The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in English language arts. The lowest is 11% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hazlet Middle School
Hazlet Middle School serves just seventh and eighth graders in the Hazlet Township Public School District, a largely built-out residential community in Monmouth County that functions as a bedroom suburb of New York City. The school occupies its own campus, separate from the district’s elementary schools and Raritan High School, and draws from a township that is predominantly white with a notable Hispanic or Latino population. The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic minority and smaller shares of students who are Asian, black, or multiracial. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that suggests a moderate but not high concentration of economic disadvantage. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
The building is a regular public school with no charter or magnet status. It did not report Title I funding status, and no information on discipline, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism was provided in the available data. Those gaps mean that a family interested in classroom climate or special education caseloads will need to inquire with the school office for specifics.
State assessment results for the most recent testing year show a divided picture by subject and grade. In seventh-grade English language arts, a solid majority of students scored at or above the proficient level, a performance that would be considered reasonably strong. Eighth-grade ELA was notably weaker, with fewer than half of students reaching proficiency. In mathematics, the drop between grades was sharp. Seventh graders scored above the midpoint in math proficiency, but eighth-grade math results were low, with only a small share of students meeting the bar. Science results for eighth graders were also low. This pattern—where proficiency rates sink in eighth grade, especially in math—is something a parent may want to explore further with the school. It could reflect the challenge of the eighth-grade curriculum, differences in student readiness, or other factors that a conversation with teachers or the principal might clarify.
When placed alongside other districts in Monmouth County, the school’s overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile. That comparison set covers a wide range of communities, from affluent coastal towns to more modest suburbs, so the position signals that Hazlet Middle School’s combined test performance trails most of its county peers. There is no high school graduation rate to report because the school serves only grades seven and eight.
Hazlet itself is a car-dependent township with no traditional downtown, oriented around highways and residential neighborhoods. The population has declined slowly over several decades, with a slight uptick in recent estimates, and the housing stock is dominated by owner-occupied single-family homes. The local housing market carries home values above the national median, and the typical rent is substantial relative to area incomes. The school is part of a district where no major recent changes or strategic initiatives surfaced in available public records.
For a family considering Hazlet Middle School, the academic picture centers on a clear strength in seventh-grade reading and a clear soft spot in eighth-grade math and science. The school serves a modest-sized student body across two grades, in a community where most commuting households work outside town. A parent who wants a fuller sense of how the school supports students who are behind, especially in the upper grade, will need to gather that information directly.
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