Roselle Park Middle School, Roselle Park NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Roselle Park Middle School

Roselle Park Middle School serves grades six through eight in the small, densely built borough of Roselle Park, a compact Union County community with a traditional street grid and a walkable core anchored by its NJ Transit train station. The school is one of five in the Roselle Park Public School District, a system that draws its students from this primarily residential borough of closely spaced single-family homes and some multi-family dwellings. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent major changes, so a parent looking for disruption or new direction should check directly with the district for current developments.

Enrollment at the middle school is modest for a three-grade public school. The student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial white population and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. A notable share of students come from households with economic need, as measured by free or reduced-price meal eligibility. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the profile, so families who need information on special education services or language support programs will want to ask the school directly about staffing and resources.

State test results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment paint a picture that warrants a close look. In English language arts, the school shows a middle-of-the-road performance relative to the state, with roughly half of students scoring proficient or above in each grade, a pattern that holds steady across the three years. Math proficiency rates are much lower and drop significantly from grade to grade. In sixth grade, the rate is moderate but declines sharply by seventh, and by eighth grade it falls to a small fraction of students. Science scores, tested only in eighth grade, are very low. When the school is placed against its peers across Union County, the overall proficiency index lands below the midpoint among the county’s districts. This is not a school where a parent can assume strong academic foundations in math and science without asking pointed questions about curriculum, instruction, and support.

Because this is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not serve the high school grades, so that metric simply does not apply. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent, which is a gap that families may want to explore, as attendance patterns often correlate with academic outcomes.

The academic picture is the defining feature of this school. The English results are adequate for many families, but the math and science numbers are a significant soft spot. A parent choosing this school should plan to engage actively with teachers and administration about what interventions, tutoring, or programmatic changes are in place to address those scores. The borough itself is a dense, transit-connected suburb with a historic downtown, tight housing, and a commuter-oriented character, which may appeal to families looking for a walkable, small-town feel close to Newark and New York. The school’s student body is socioeconomically diverse, and its size is manageable. But the central question a parent must answer is whether the academic trajectory, particularly in math and science, matches their child’s needs and whether the school has the resources to close those gaps.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

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

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 51%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

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

Science

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolRoselle Park 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income62%19 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income68%30 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income41%Higher-income55%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income49%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income9%Higher-income30%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income8%Higher-income15%7 pp gap