The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in English language arts. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Woodcliff Middle School
Woodcliff Middle School serves grades six through eight in the small, affluent borough of Woodcliff Lake, a low-density residential community in Bergen County anchored by BMW’s North American headquarters and the Tice’s Corner Marketplace retail center. The school is the only middle school within the Woodcliff Lake School District, and after eighth grade students move on to Pascack Hills High School in Montvale as part of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District. The borough’s substantial commercial property tax base and large-lot zoning contribute to a high-cost housing market, with typical home values well above both state and national medians.
The student body is small, and the demographic profile is predominantly white, with Asian and Hispanic students each making up a modest share. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is very low, reflecting the community’s overall affluence. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available.
On state assessments, Woodcliff Middle School posts strong results in English language arts across all three grade levels, with a large majority of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders meeting proficiency benchmarks. Math performance is solid in sixth and seventh grades, with roughly seven in ten students scoring proficient. Eighth-grade math proficiency drops to about half of students, a pattern not uncommon in middle schools where algebra coursework shifts the assessment. Science results for eighth graders are notably lower, with fewer than four in ten students scoring proficient. A parent may want to look into how the school supports science learning in the middle grades.
When compared to other districts across Bergen County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile, a strong showing for a school of its size.
No four-year graduation rate applies here, as the school does not serve twelfth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported, so that dimension of the school environment cannot be assessed from the available evidence. The district brief turned up no recent changes that met the bar for lasting impact, so the school’s programming and operations appear stable in the near term.
The surrounding housing market is expensive and competitive. Inventory in Bergen County has been tight, with active listings rising but remaining limited, and the typical home sells quickly. The borough itself is car-dependent, with a walkable node only at the Woodcliff Lake train station on the Pascack Valley Line, which offers rail service to Hoboken and connections to New York. The civic life revolves around Wood Dale County Park, Old Mill Pool, and the shared Tri-Boro volunteer ambulance corps, rather than a downtown core. A notable ongoing civic issue is the borough’s effort to withdraw from the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, driven by a disparity in per-student costs between Woodcliff Lake and Hillsdale, but that process remains unresolved and does not directly affect the middle school at this time.
For a family seeking a small, academically strong middle school in a high-cost suburban setting with a commuter rail connection to the New York region, Woodcliff Middle School offers consistent literacy results and generally solid math performance, with science being the area worth investigating further.
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