Merrick Avenue Middle School, Merrick NY

Original Research by School Decision on Merrick Avenue Middle School

Merrick Avenue Middle School is a public middle school serving grades seven through nine in Merrick, a built-out residential suburb on Long Island's South Shore in Nassau County. The school enrolls a fairly typical suburban cohort, with the student body roughly three-quarters white, supplemented by smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, and other students. About one in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school sits on Merrick Avenue within a moderately walkable commercial corridor anchored by a LIRR station, embedded in a neighborhood of single-family homes where housing values reflect a strong, stable market.

In state testing, Merrick Avenue's results show solid core performance with meaningful variation by grade. Grade seven students demonstrate stronger proficiency across subjects: roughly three-quarters meet the standard in math, and a somewhat lower share do so in English language arts. Grade eight performance is more uneven. Math proficiency in eighth grade falls to around half, though testing participation in that grade is substantially lower, which may reflect course placement and tracking patterns in middle school. Eighth-grade ELA proficiency climbs back to the mid-seventies. A small sample of eighth graders in science meets the proficiency benchmark. These results sit above the midpoint among Nassau County's districts when proficiency is averaged across tested subjects and grades.

The school is part of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, a regional district that operates secondary schools across a swath of Long Island. The district has recently undertaken structural changes that matter to families considering it. In 2024 voters approved both a capital reserve fund and a Kennedy High School facilities upgrade, embedding a mechanism for long-term building investment without piercing the property tax cap. The district has also implemented a district-wide 1:1 Chromebook initiative, issuing a device to every student in grades seven through twelve for classroom and home use, a pedagogical shift that reflects the district's investment in device-based learning across all secondary grades.

The district's operating budgets have grown steadily and consistently stayed within the state tax-levy cap over recent years, a pattern that signals predictable, capped property-tax impact for homeowners. Merrick itself is a largely built-out, mature community where new housing is small-scale and inventory runs tight relative to steady buyer demand. The median home value in the zip code is substantial, and homes sell briskly; the neighborhood offers direct bay access, a substantial regional park with bay views and trails, library service, and close proximity to the LIRR for New York City commuting.

One feature a parent may want to explore further with the school is the participation rate in state testing. Grade eight math and science show notably lower testing participation than grade seven ELA and math, suggesting either legitimate exemptions tied to course sequences or a data reporting pattern. The school's website and guidance office can clarify whether students are placed into algebra or other pathways that may exclude them from grade-level testing, a common practice in middle schools but worth understanding for your own child's trajectory.

The school's profile is that of a suburban middle school in a stable, affluent community with solid grade-seven foundations, more variable performance by subject and grade in grade eight, and a district-wide commitment to technology-enabled instruction. For families in Merrick, it represents a continuation of the local public system after elementary years, with secondary placement into the regional district's high schools, where AP and career pathway offerings and graduation outcomes would be the next set of questions to weigh.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

1 course 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	235	100.0%

Math

Grade 778%

School 78% · District 75% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 52% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 769%

School 69% · District 68% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 72% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 55% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 49 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 891%

School 91% · district not reported

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

This schoolBELLMORE-MERRICK CENTRAL HIGH 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 7Lower-income63%Higher-income70%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income67%Higher-income78%11 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income80%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income56%Higher-income52%3 pp gap