Colonia Middle School, Colonia NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Colonia Middle School

Colonia Middle School is a regular public school serving grades six through eight within the Woodbridge Township School District. It sits in Colonia, a predominantly residential suburban community in Middlesex County. Colonia is a mature, built-out suburb with a high owner-occupation rate and housing values that reflect the area's stability; most residents commute by car to employment elsewhere. The school itself is one of several distributed across the neighborhood on residential streets, with no downtown core nearby.

The student body is diverse. Roughly half of the students are White, while sizable shares are Asian, Hispanic, and Black. A modest portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a middle ground economically. The total enrollment gives the school a mid-sized feel for a middle school, with each grade level in the several hundreds. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source material, so families with children in those categories may want to ask the school directly about supports.

On state assessments, Colonia Middle School shows a mixed picture. In English language arts, performance is fairly steady across grades six through eight, with roughly half of students scoring proficient or above in each grade. Math tells a different story: proficiency starts at about half of sixth graders, drops to roughly a third of seventh graders, and falls to about a fifth of eighth graders. The decline is sharp, and a parent considering this school may want to understand how the math curriculum and instruction are structured across those grades. In eighth-grade science, only a small share of students reached proficiency, a clear soft spot well below the school’s own ELA numbers. Overall, when combining all tested subjects and grades, the school’s proficiency index sits above the midpoint among districts in Middlesex County, meaning it performs around the middle of the pack relative to its neighbors, neither a standout nor a laggard.

Because this is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the available records. The school is not a charter, not a magnet, and its Title I status was not specified. No course access or program offerings were provided in the data, so the narrative cannot speak to electives, advanced tracks, or extracurriculars.

For families, Colonia Middle School offers a stable suburban setting with a diverse student population. The academic results are uneven: ELA is a relative bright spot, while math and science show room for improvement, especially as students move toward eighth grade. The school’s position near the county average suggests it is a typical middle school in this part of New Jersey, not one that leads the region on testing but also not one that struggles deeply. A family prioritizing strong literacy instruction may find a reasonable fit here; a family with a child who needs stronger math or science support may want to ask how the school addresses the decline seen in those subjects.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 32% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 34% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 21%

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

English language arts

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 42% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 42% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 14% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

This schoolWoodbridge Township 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-income33%Higher-income50%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income50%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income57%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income52%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income24%Higher-income44%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income15%Higher-income23%8 pp gap