Robert Moses Middle School, North Babylon NY

Original Research by School Decision on Robert Moses Middle School

Robert Moses Middle School is a public middle school serving grades six through eight in North Babylon, a quiet residential hamlet on Long Island. The school enrolls a diverse student body of about one thousand students, with roughly half qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment breaks fairly evenly across the three grades, with a small number of ungraded students also on roll.

The student composition reflects the broader North Babylon area: Hispanic and white students each represent roughly a quarter of enrollment, Black students make up about one-quarter, Asian students a smaller share, and the remainder split among other racial and ethnic groups. This is a working and middle-class community with significant economic diversity, and that reality shows in the school's attendance and economic profile.

On state testing, Robert Moses faces substantial academic challenges. In mathematics, proficiency rates range from roughly one-fifth to one-third across grades six, seven, and eight. English language arts shows similar patterns, though eighth-grade ELA performance is notably higher, approaching four out of ten students meeting proficiency. Science testing at grade eight shows the lowest results overall, with proficiency in the single digits. Across the school, only a small fraction of students who sit for state assessments meet the proficiency standard. When positioned against other districts in Suffolk County, the school ranks in the bottom quartile on overall proficiency across tested subjects. The school's participation rates in testing are also low, below half in several grades, which typically signals chronic absenteeism or other barriers to consistent attendance during assessment windows.

One area where the school showed strength historically is social studies at grade eight, though that assessment is no longer administered under New York's current testing regime, so more recent performance in that subject is unavailable. The disparities in performance across subjects and grades suggest that eighth-grade English instruction or support may be relatively stronger, but math and science present ongoing areas of concern that a parent may want to look into further with the school.

The North Babylon district has made structural changes at the high school level that create different conditions for students moving through the system. Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, North Babylon High School shifted to a nine-period day, which the district describes as increasing flexibility, reducing certain class sizes, and expanding career and advanced-study pathways. This shift will shape the environment students encounter after middle school.

The broader district context includes rising property taxes and district spending over recent years, a factor homebuyers consider when evaluating the community. The district also recently adopted a bell-to-bell phone restriction for the 2025-2026 school year, aligning with New York State policy, which will change daily routines across all schools.

North Babylon itself is a car-dependent suburban area organized around residential streets and a commercial spine on Deer Park Avenue. The Town has been working to revitalize this corridor into a recognizable downtown, with some new mixed-use and multifamily housing appearing in recent years. The housing market in the zip code shows median values in the mid-range for Long Island, with rental availability and moderate affordability relative to national benchmarks. Civic life centers on Belmont Lake State Park, a state facility that draws heavy visitation, and Phelps Lane Park. Public transit is bus and rail adjacent rather than internal to the hamlet.

Robert Moses Middle School sits in a community and district facing academic performance challenges that warrant direct conversation with school leadership about teaching approaches, student support services, and the specific factors affecting proficiency in core subjects, particularly math and science.

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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	105	78.0%
Math	99	96.0%

Math

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 26%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 31% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 21%

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

English language arts

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

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

Science

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 13%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 890%

School 90% · district not reported

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolNORTH BABYLON UNION FREE 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-income22%Higher-income32%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income31%Higher-income28%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income17%Higher-income38%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income36%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income23%3 pp gap