H W Mountz Elementary School, Spring Lake NJ

Original Research by School Decision on H W Mountz Elementary School

H W Mountz Elementary School is the single public school serving Spring Lake, a small, affluent Jersey Shore borough that carries a distinct seasonal resort character. The school educates children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, which means that after eighth grade students leave the district to attend Manasquan High School through a sending-receiving arrangement. The school building sits within the borough itself, close to the commercial district, the boardwalk, and the lake, rather than on a separate campus.

The student body is small, and the demographic picture is one of very limited racial and ethnic diversity. Nearly all enrolled students are white. The school serves a community that the borough's housing numbers frame clearly: home values and rents in the zip code rank among the highest in the region, and the area has a large share of seasonal or vacant housing units, reflecting a place that swells with summer vacationers. The year-round population, which feeds the school, has been on a modest decline over recent decades. A family moving here for the school should understand that they are buying into a high-cost, low-turnover housing market where the public school draws from a narrow band of the community's permanent residents.

On academic performance, H W Mountz stands out. State testing results across math and English language arts show that students at most grade levels reach proficiency at rates that place the school among the highest-performing in Monmouth County. In some tested grades every student who took the assessment met the proficiency bar, and in others the share was still well above a strong majority. A parent will see a consistent pattern of high attainment in the core subjects through the elementary and middle school years. Science results are more mixed, with a notably lower proficiency rate in eighth-grade science compared to fifth grade. That spread is worth a conversation with the school, though the eighth-grade cohort is small enough that a single year's data can swing on a few students.

The school operates as a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet school. It does not have Title I status, which is consistent with serving an affluent population where few families qualify for federal income-based assistance. Data on special education identification, English learner services, chronic absenteeism, and discipline were not available in the records reviewed, so a parent with a child who needs specific support should ask the school directly about those programs.

There is no high school in this district, so the pathway for an eighth grader leads to a neighboring district. That is a built-in consideration for any family planning through graduation. The overall picture at H W Mountz is of a school delivering consistently strong academic results in a small, homogeneous, and wealthy community, in a borough that offers a quiet off-season and a bustling summer, with the housing costs that go with that setting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 3100%

School 100% · District 100%

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

Grade 592%

School 92% · District 92%

▲ 50 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 693%

School 93% · District 93%

▲ 59 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 79%

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

English language arts

Grade 393%

School 93% · District 93%

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

Grade 585%

School 85% · District 85%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 6100%

School 100% · District 100%

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

Grade 7100%

School 100% · District 100%

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

Grade 885%

School 85% · District 85%

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

Science

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 77%

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

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46%

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

This schoolSpring Lake Borough, 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.