Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School, Stony Brook NY

Original Research by School Decision on Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School

Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School serves students in grades seven through nine in Stony Brook, a suburban hamlet anchored by Stony Brook University on Long Island's North Shore. The school is part of the Three Village Central School District, which underwent a significant structural change in fall 2025, moving sixth grade up into junior high and shifting ninth grade into Ward Melville High School. This reconfiguration means Murphy now operates as a middle school with grades six through eight, reshaping which building students attend at transition points and changing the peer and activity environment considerably.

The enrollment sits at a moderate size for the three-year span of middle grades, with a student body that is predominantly White, with meaningful shares of Asian and Hispanic students and smaller numbers of Black students. About a quarter of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting a mixed economic profile within an otherwise affluent community where median home values are substantial and median rents remain notably high.

Academic performance on New York State testing shows mixed results across subjects and grades. In seventh-grade math and English language arts, the school's proficiency rates sit near or slightly above the midpoint. Seventh-grade math and ELA proficiency are in the low-to-mid range, while seventh-grade ELA is slightly above that threshold. Eighth-grade performance darkens the picture considerably. In eighth-grade math, proficiency drops to a notably low level, accompanied by a very low test participation rate, which suggests either a significant content or engagement challenge at that grade level or substantial absenteeism on testing days. Eighth-grade ELA holds at a stronger level, and science proficiency, though modest, is above math. A parent may want to look into the eighth-grade math trajectory directly with the school to understand whether a particular curriculum, staffing, or structural issue is driving the sharp drop from seventh grade, and whether the participation rate reflects testing circumstances or broader attendance concerns.

Stony Brook itself is a transit-accessible hamlet with a walkable historic village center anchored by shops, restaurants, and civic anchors like the Long Island Museum. The broader residential area is auto-oriented. The community's character is heavily shaped by the university's presence as a major employer and cultural force, though the hamlet maintains its own small-town village identity separate from the campus. Recent growth has centered on the university's housing expansion to meet student demand and address shortages worsened by August 2024 flood damage. The local single-family housing market remains tight, with prices rising and supply constrained relative to demand.

The Three Village Central School District faced a failed bond referendum in January 2026, when voters did not approve a substantial borrowing package for building repairs and improvements. As a result, the district will integrate repair funding into operating budgets, contributing to budget pressure and a notably elevated tax increase for the 2026-27 school year. This has direct implications for facility conditions and longer-term maintenance capacity across the district's buildings, including Murphy. The district is managing this alongside the structural reconfiguration now underway, so families should expect a transition period as the grade reorganization settles.

The school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among districts in Suffolk County, positioning it as a school with stronger-than-average academic grounding, though the eighth-grade math results suggest targeted challenges worth understanding before enrollment.

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Academic performance

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

Advanced Placement & IB

2 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus BC

3 tested · Grade 9

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

Chinese Language and Culture

1 tested · Grade 9

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

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	227	97.0%
Math	9	100.0%

Math

Grade 766%

School 66% · District 73% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 35% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 71% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 68% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 54% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 897%

School 97% · district not reported

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolTHREE VILLAGE 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 7Lower-income55%Higher-income66%12 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income48%Higher-income68%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income68%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income24%12 pp gap