The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in English language arts. The lowest is 38% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Benjamin Franklin Middle School
Benjamin Franklin Middle School, one of two public middle schools in Ridgewood, serves grades six through eight in a village that functions as an affluent bedroom community for New York City. Ridgewood’s tree-lined residential neighborhoods and walkable downtown along East Ridgewood Avenue give it a distinctly suburban, family-oriented character. The school itself sits on a campus separate from the village’s commercial core, as do the district’s six elementary schools and high school, spread across different neighborhoods.
The student body of this middle school is predominantly white, with a substantial Asian representation and smaller shares of Hispanic students and students who identify as two or more races. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is very low, reflecting the high median household income of the surrounding community. Ridgewood’s housing stock is overwhelmingly owner-occupied single-family homes, with a very low vacancy rate, and the village is largely built out, seeing modest population growth rather than rapid expansion.
Academically, the school’s performance on New Jersey’s state assessments presents a mixed picture by subject. In English language arts, students across all three grades post strong proficiency rates well above the midpoint of the county’s districts. That consistency suggests a solid reading and writing program. In mathematics, however, the results vary sharply by grade. Sixth-grade math proficiency is notably high, but it declines meaningfully by seventh grade and drops further by eighth grade, where the proficiency rate is considerably lower. The eighth-grade science proficiency rate, measured on a different scale, is also modest. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand the math trajectory and whether the curriculum, course placement, or testing conditions explain the pattern—or whether the school’s math offerings shift in ways that leave some students less prepared by the end of middle school.
The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places the school above the midpoint among districts in Bergen County, a large and diverse county with many high-performing public schools. That positioning aligns with the broader district’s reputation in the region and with the village’s socioeconomic profile.
As a regular public school with no charter or magnet status, Benjamin Franklin follows the Ridgewood district’s curriculum and policies. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary shifts or major program overhauls, so the school’s structure appears stable. No data on discipline, chronic absenteeism, course access, or staffing was available in the provided material, so those dimensions cannot be assessed from this source.
For families considering the school, the peer environment is shaped by the community’s affluence and its family-centered residential character. The very low share of students from low-income households and the high concentration of college-educated adults in Ridgewood mean that most students come from academically supportive homes. The school’s size, serving around six hundred students across three grades, is modest enough that a student can be known but large enough to offer some range in elective choices and peer groups—though the data did not include specific program offerings to confirm.
The math decline between grades six and eight is the most noteworthy academic data point. English language arts is a clear strength, and the school’s overall standing in the county is comfortably above average. Families whose children need strong math support may want to ask about acceleration options, intervention practices, and how math course sequencing works from middle school into Ridgewood High School.
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