Frank Antonides School, West Long Branch NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Frank Antonides School

Frank Antonides School serves students in grade five through eight in West Long Branch, a small, primarily residential Monmouth County borough. The school is the sole upper-grade school within the West Long Branch School District, meaning that most students in the borough attend here for middle school before moving on to Shore Regional High School, which serves multiple sending towns. The district itself is small, and during a recent school year it received state preschool expansion aid to transition to a full-day program for younger children, a benefit for families with children just entering the system, but the immediate relevance for Antonides families is the continuity of a small-district experience.

The student body is small for a middle school and is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population representing the next largest group and very small numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a largely affluent community, though not exclusively so. The school is a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet.

On state assessments, performance varies noticeably by subject and grade. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades five through seven cluster in a moderate range. Grade eight stands apart with a notably higher performance, with a large majority of students meeting the state’s proficiency benchmark. In mathematics, proficiency across grades five through seven is also moderate, while grade eight again posts a stronger result. Science results show a starker split: grade five proficiency is moderate, while grade eight proficiency is markedly lower, with only a minority of students meeting the standard. This drop-off in eighth-grade science may reflect a course sequence or testing dynamic that a parent may want to discuss with the school. Overall, when compared with other districts in Monmouth County, the school’s combined proficiency across subjects and grades sits above the midpoint of the county’s districts.

Because the school serves only middle school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and no data was available on chronic absenteeism or on the share of students with disabilities or English learners. The district and school websites may provide those details.

Housing in West Long Branch is expensive. Home values are well above both the New Jersey and national medians, and the area has seen a modest year-over-year increase in values. The local housing market shows strong demand relative to supply. For families moving into the district, this means a significant financial commitment is required to enter the community. The borough is small in land area and auto-oriented, with a commercial strip along Broadway and Monmouth University’s campus serving as a prominent local feature and employer.

For a family considering Antonides, the picture is of a small, community-grounded middle school in an affluent suburb, where state test results are solidly above the county midpoint overall but uneven, with strong eighth-grade reading and math contrasting with weaker middle-grade math and a notable soft spot in eighth-grade science. The school offers a straightforward, contained pathway through the middle years within a single district before students move on to a regional high school. Parents who value a small, local school in a high-cost, college-town-adjacent setting may find a good fit here; those concerned about the drop in science performance or curious about how the school addresses it should ask the school directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

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

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 70%

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

English language arts

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 9 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 64%

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

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 83%

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Science

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 53%

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

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 33%

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

This schoolWest Long Branch 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 5Lower-income50%Higher-income67%17 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income64%39 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income67%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income69%Higher-income89%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income60%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income58%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income54%Higher-income56%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income77%23 pp gap