Shrewsbury Borough Elementary School, Shrewsbury NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Shrewsbury Borough Elementary School

Shrewsbury Borough Elementary School is a single-school district that serves children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, meaning most families who enroll here will need to plan for a high school transition when their child finishes eighth grade. High school students from Shrewsbury attend Red Bank Regional High School on a tuition basis, which also draws students from Little Silver and Red Bank. That arrangement is a fixed part of the borough’s structure, not a choice families make each year.

The school sits in a small, primarily residential borough that functions as a bedroom community for New York City. Shrewsbury covers a compact area and its daily life is car-oriented, organized around the historic Four Corners intersection and the Grove at Shrewsbury, an upscale retail center that acts as a de facto town square. The town has seen population growth over recent decades, and the housing market reflects its desirability; home values are elevated relative to state and national benchmarks, putting homeownership out of reach for many households and making this a market that tends to attract families who are financially established.

Academically, the school’s state test results show a pattern that varies by grade and subject. In math, proficiency reaches very high levels in sixth grade, stays strong in third and seventh grades, sits at a solid level in fourth and fifth grades, and then drops to a markedly lower level in eighth grade. In English language arts, the same general shape holds: the strongest results come in sixth grade, where nearly all students tested met the proficiency bar, and the weakest come in fourth and fifth grades, where about three in five students scored proficient. Eighth-grade ELA results are stronger than eighth-grade math, but still below the school’s own high marks in earlier grades. In science, tested only in fifth and eighth grades, proficiency is lower across the board, with eighth-grade science showing a particularly weak result that a parent may want to discuss with the school. The overall proficiency pattern across all tested subjects and grades places this school in the top quarter of districts in Monmouth County, a strong relative position.

The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is minimal, well below what is typical in public schools, which aligns with the community’s high housing costs and suggests a student population from largely affluent households. Enrollment is steady across the elementary and middle grades, with a small pre-K program.

No data was available on chronic absenteeism, special education identification, English learner services, or discipline. Those gaps do not necessarily indicate problems, but a parent who wants a full picture of student support and climate may need to ask the school directly.

The district itself has not seen major recent changes that would reshape a family’s experience, based on what is publicly reported. The school is a single building in a stable, small community. For a family considering Shrewsbury, the key factors are the high cost of housing, the fact that children will move to a different school system for high school, and the uneven academic picture that shows genuine strength in the middle elementary and early middle school years but a noticeable dip in eighth-grade math and science that warrants a closer conversation with the school. The overall academic performance relative to Monmouth County peers is strong, but the variation across grades means that a student’s experience may depend heavily on the year and the teacher.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 384%

School 84% · District 84%

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 693%

School 93% · District 93%

▲ 59 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 778%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 43 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 379%

School 79% · District 79%

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 8 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 693%

School 93% · District 93%

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 786%

School 86% · District 86%

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 879%

School 79% · District 79%

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

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 46%

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

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 18%

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

This schoolShrewsbury Borough 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.