Nyack Middle School, Nyack NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Nyack Middle School

Nyack Middle School sits in a village known for its walkable downtown and artistic energy, along the Hudson River in Rockland County. The school itself is a traditional public middle school serving grades six through eight, with a student body that is diverse in race and ethnicity: roughly a third white, about the same share Hispanic, a meaningful share Black, and smaller shares Asian and multiracial. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting mixed economic circumstances in the school community.

Academically, the school's performance shows a pattern worth understanding plainly. In English language arts, roughly half to just under six in ten students across the three grades met proficiency benchmarks on New York State tests. In math, the pattern is similar or slightly higher, ranging from about half in eighth grade to about six in ten in sixth and seventh grades. These are not strong results by state standards, and a parent considering this school should look carefully at how the middle grades are being supported.

Science tells a more concerning story. The eighth-grade science assessment shows that only about one in six students tested met proficiency, with participation itself very low (only about one in five eighth graders took the state science test). This is not necessarily a reflection of teaching quality alone; participation rates that low suggest either few students were entered for the assessment or many were excluded, perhaps because of scheduling, remediation focus, or other school structures. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how science instruction is organized in eighth grade and why participation in the state test was so limited.

The school serves roughly equal numbers of students in each grade, with a total enrollment of about six hundred fifty. Staff and attendance data were not available, so there is no window into chronic absenteeism or the size of the instructional team. The school sits within the Nyack Union Free School District, which in recent years has invested in facilities through capital reserves rather than new borrowing, including air conditioning upgrades, roof and boiler work, and a 2021 land purchase for parking and open space near the high school. The district has also shifted early literacy instruction toward phonics-based, evidence-based methods, a meaningful pedagogical move for young students. School tax levies in the district have risen steadily but stayed within the state's tax cap.

Nyack itself is a small village with strong walkability downtown, where Main Street, shops, galleries, restaurants, and a year-round farmers market anchor daily life. Memorial Park on the Hudson, the waterfront, and easy bus service to New York City shape the broader context. The median home value in the Nyack zip code is in the mid-six figures, with rental costs a meaningful share of household income; it is a place where housing is not inexpensive.

When weighed against other districts in Rockland County, Nyack Middle School's overall proficiency index sits below the median. A family should enter this school with clear eyes about the academic baseline and a willingness to understand what support structures exist for students working below grade level. The school is a neighborhood public school with a real peer group of local children, not a selective or specialized environment. Its value lies in being part of a community-rooted district making deliberate, long-term investments in buildings and early literacy, set in a lively village with genuine street life and river character.

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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	185	77.0%
Math	48	100.0%

Math

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 60% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 852%

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

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 16% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 876%

School 76% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

This schoolNYACK 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-income24%Higher-income67%43 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income65%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income58%36 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income69%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income65%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income59%30 pp gap