Middle Schools in Harrison Public Schools

The Harrison Public Schools district in New Jersey has only one middle school, Washington Middle School, which serves students in grades 6-8. The school has faced declining performance in recent years, with its statewide ranking dropping from 412 out of 745 New Jersey middle schools in 2021-2022 to 517 out of 743 in 2023-2024, earning a 2-star rating.

Washington Middle School's proficiency rates in English Language Arts and Mathematics are significantly below the state averages across all grade levels. For example, in 2023-2024, the school's ELA proficiency rates ranged from 39.4% to 49.7%, compared to the state averages of 52.9% to 53.9%. In Mathematics, the school's proficiency rates were even lower, ranging from 4.6% to 25.2%, compared to the state averages of 19.4% to 37.5%. The school's proficiency rate in Algebra I for 8th grade (83.4%) is higher than the state average (73.6%), but the overall Algebra I proficiency rate for the school is lower than the state average.

Despite the school's academic challenges, it appears to have a relatively high level of per-student spending ($14,511 in 2018-2019) and a low student-teacher ratio of 13.4 to 1. However, the school serves a population with a high percentage (80.97%) of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage among the student population. These factors suggest that the school may need to re-evaluate its strategies and interventions to better support the needs of its students and improve their academic outcomes.