Haldane Middle School, Cold Spring NY

Original Research by School Decision on Haldane Middle School

Haldane Middle School is a small public school serving about a small cohort of students in grades six through eight, located on the unified Haldane Central School District campus on Route 9D in Cold Spring. The school draws from Cold Spring and the surrounding area of Philipstown, a scenic Hudson River village where historic character and weekend foot traffic mingle with a quiet weekday rhythm and where most working residents commute out for employment. Housing in the area is expensive relative to the region and state, and recent development has tilted toward 55-and-older communities rather than family homes, a context that shapes the school's enrollment.

Academic performance at Haldane Middle shows uneven terrain across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency is solid in grades seven and eight, running in the mid-to-high range. Grade six ELA performance is in the upper-middle range. Mathematics performance splits clearly by grade. Seventh grade is strong. Sixth grade is moderate. Eighth grade math proficiency drops notably, and notably few eighth graders participated in the state math assessment. Science testing in eighth grade shows weak overall proficiency, and again, very few students took the exam. A parent may want to look into these participation and performance patterns with the school directly, particularly what accounts for the low test participation in eighth grade science and the drop-off in math. The school serves a small cohort overall, so grade-level numbers are modest and year-to-year movement can shift results significantly.

The student body is predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and smaller numbers of Asian and Black students. A modest share qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education enrollment and English learners was not available.

Among districts in Putnam County, Haldane Middle's overall proficiency index falls above the midpoint, a position that reflects the stronger performance in reading and seventh-grade math offsetting the weaker science and eighth-grade math results. The school has no four-year graduation rate because it serves only middle grades, and chronic absenteeism data was not available.

Recent district-wide changes will touch this school. In November 2024, voters approved a substantial capital bond to fund a major renovation of the Cold Spring campus, including a new high school addition with expanded learning and support spaces. That project will raise district property taxes over a multiyear phase-in. In October 2025, the district adopted new elementary literacy curricula based on structured phonics and research-informed reading instruction, a change that will affect the lower grades and eventually influence the preparation students bring to middle school.

Cold Spring itself is walkable and historic, with a half-mile Main Street of independent shops and restaurants, strong weekend activity for visitors, and weekday quiet. The Metro-North Hudson Line station sits at the heart of the village, a commute option for parents. The school campus is set apart from downtown, on its own grounds at the village edge, where it shares a site with the elementary and high schools.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

2 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Science	33	100.0%
Math	25	100.0%

Math

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 85%

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 13 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 670%

School 70% · District 70%

▲ 24 pts above state median

Grade 778%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 83%

▲ 35 pts above state median

Science

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 4 pts above state median

This schoolHALDANE CENTRAL 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-income47%Higher-income77%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income80%Higher-income78%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income88%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income69%26 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income80%Higher-income85%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income59%39 pp gap