Slocum Skewes School, Ridgefield NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Slocum Skewes School

Slocum Skewes School serves students in third through ninth grade, a span that covers upper elementary, middle school, and the first year of high school. It is a regular public school within the Ridgefield School District in Bergen County. The school is located on Prospect Avenue in Ridgefield, a densely populated suburban borough shaped by its three hill-and-valley sections: central Ridgefield, Morsemere to the north, and Ridgefield Heights on the eastern hill. Ridgefield blends residential neighborhoods with commercial corridors along Bergen Boulevard and industrial areas in its Meadowlands portion. The borough’s population is notably diverse, with a substantial share of Hispanic/Latino and Asian residents, and the housing market is expensive, reflecting the broader Bergen County area. Ridgefield’s streets are walkable in the older, denser neighborhoods, but commercial activity is spread along highway-oriented strips rather than a traditional downtown. Most residents commute to jobs outside the borough, likely including New York City.

The school’s enrollment is moderately sized for a school serving this grade band. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse: the largest group is Hispanic, followed by white and Asian students, with a smaller Black population. State testing data for the most recent year shows a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, performance is stronger in the upper grades, with a solid majority of seventh and eighth graders meeting the state’s proficiency standard. Sixth graders also post a strong result. The lower grades are weaker, with about half of third graders and just under half of fourth graders reaching proficiency. In math, the results are softer across the board, and the pattern declines by grade: the strongest showing is in third grade, where a little more than half of students are proficient, and the weakest is in eighth grade, where fewer than a third meet the standard. Science results are similarly soft, with a modest share of fifth graders proficient and a notably low share of eighth graders. Reading the data straight, the school shows a clear strength in upper-grade English instruction, while math and science are areas a parent may want to look into further with the school. The overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, places Slocum Skewes below the midpoint relative to districts in Bergen County.

The school serves no grades that produce a graduation rate, and data on chronic absenteeism was not available. Information on special education and English learner populations was also not reported in the data provided, so a parent should ask the school directly about those supports. Program offerings, such as advanced coursework or enrichment, were not part of the available information.

The Ridgefield School District, which oversees Slocum Skewes along with the district’s other schools, appears to be in a period of stability, with no major recent changes identified from publicly reported sources. The school itself operates as a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet institution. For a family evaluating this school, the academic profile suggests a place where English instruction in the middle grades is a clear asset, while math achievement trails behind. The student body is diverse, and the borough is a high-cost, commuter-oriented suburb with no centralized downtown, so civic and school life are distributed across neighborhoods rather than anchored to a single hub.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 51%

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 42%

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

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 30%

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 49%

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

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 767%

School 67% · District 67%

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

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 66% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 22%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

This schoolRidgefield 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 3Lower-income43%Higher-income55%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income61%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income47%Higher-income66%19 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income58%Higher-income64%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income63%Higher-income71%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income75%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income53%Higher-income57%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income57%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income52%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income46%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income40%Higher-income38%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income37%Higher-income25%12 pp gap