Burnet Middle School, Union NJ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Burnet Middle School

Burnet Middle School, part of the Township of Union School District, serves grades five through eight in a community that is a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and industrial sites, anchored by Kean University and a major Home Depot Superstore. The township has seen steady population growth, and the district responded with a recent reorganization that shifted all sixth graders to Burnet and Kawameeh Middle Schools. A voter-approved referendum is funding roof repairs, security vestibules, and HVAC upgrades across the district’s schools, and elementary students now receive expanded Spanish instruction starting in kindergarten.

Burnet is a large regular public school. Its student body is diverse: a substantial share of students identify as Black, a sizable portion as Hispanic, and smaller shares as white, Asian, or multiracial. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful indicator of the economic context families bring. The school does not serve grades where a graduation rate applies, and the data on special populations, such as students with individualized education plans or English learners, was not available for this report.

The academic picture from state testing shows a clear pattern. In English language arts, roughly half of sixth graders met the state’s proficiency standard, with slightly lower shares in seventh and eighth grade. These results place the school’s overall performance across subjects below the midpoint relative to other districts in Union County. The more pronounced challenge is in math, where proficiency shares are lower across all tested grades and decline substantially by eighth grade. In science, the share of eighth graders reaching the state’s standard is very low. A parent considering Burnet will want to ask the school directly about how it supports students who are not yet meeting math and science benchmarks, and what academic interventions or acceleration options are available, particularly in the upper middle grades.

The housing market in the area is tight and costly. Home values and rents in Union Township’s ZIP code are elevated, and the broader Union County market shows a limited supply of homes for sale with strong demand. Median listing prices for the county are high relative to national figures, and the typical days a home spends on the market are short. For a family moving into the district, this means a competitive housing search and a meaningful financial commitment.

The district brief noted that the reorganization, effective fall 2025, converted Jefferson School into a full PreK-5 primary school and moved all sixth graders into the middle schools. That means Burnet now houses sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, a shift that may affect the school’s culture, scheduling, and how it structures its academic and extracurricular offerings. The facility referendum, also recently underway, touches all ten schools in the district and will be something families experience during the construction period.

What is not available in the data that a parent might want includes information about class sizes, teacher experience and turnover, disciplinary climate, course offerings such as advanced or honors classes, and after-school or athletic programs. The absence of these details means a family should plan to visit the school, talk to current parents, and ask the principal directly about how the school serves its wide range of learners, especially given the testing results. The community itself offers civic anchors including a municipal library, a train station on NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line, and proximity to Newark Liberty International Airport, making it a well-connected suburban setting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 31% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

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

English language arts

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 59% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 51% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 53% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Science

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 15% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

This schoolTownship of Union 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-income45%Higher-income56%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income40%Higher-income53%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income41%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income34%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income39%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income10%Higher-income12%3 pp gap