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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Buzz Aldrin Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
618
Middle
DISTRICT 444 · STATE 578
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MONTCLAIR PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 341056002178
Buzz Aldrin Middle School
173 BELLEVUE AVE, UPPER MONTCLAIR, NJ 07042 · (973) 509-4220 · Essex County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL618 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 51% of New Jersey public middle schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded New Jersey public middle schools
Student : Teacher
9.8:1
63 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 8.6:1 · STATE 10.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
17%
106 students
DISTRICT 15% · STATE 41%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 211 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 213 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 194 | 31% |
Student demographics
67%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 67% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Buzz Aldrin Middle School→Montclair High School
Based on grade levels within Montclair Public School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
72.5%
NJ avg 53.1% . +3.3pp since 2023
Math
58.7%
NJ avg 41.6% . +2.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 73 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 59 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores are up about 3 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 72.5% | 58.7% |
| 2023-24 | 69.2% | 56.2% |
% Meeting or Exceeding Expectations, all students and all tested grades.
Source: NJSLA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
52.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
56.8%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 57% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New Jersey's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Buzz Aldrin Middle School
Buzz Aldrin Middle School's state test result (52.0% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buzz Aldrin Middle School this school | 618 | 17.2% | 52.0% |
| Florence M. Gaudineer Middle School Springfield | 474 | 17.9% | 49.8% |
| Glenfield Middle School MONTCLAIR | 512 | 19.9% | 56.4% |
| Bordentown Regional Middle School BORDENTOWN | 504 | 20.6% | 48.7% |
| Maplewood Middle School MAPLEWOOD | 762 | 18.6% | 48.2% |
| South Orange Middle School S ORANGE | 752 | 11.6% | 52.4% |
Matched among New Jersey middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Buzz Aldrin Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Essex County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 52.0% | #164 of 433 | #14 of 27 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.7% | #115 of 437 no change | #8 of 28 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 72.5% | #130 of 437 ▼ 6 | #12 of 28 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 618 | #172 of 445 | #11 of 29 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 9.8:1 | #104 of 417 | #10 of 28 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 67.4% | #76 of 419 | #5 of 28 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 17.2% | #299 of 436 | #15 of 27 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -6.1% | #198 of 282 | #12 of 16 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
618
-44 (-7%) vs 2020
+4% since 1990-91, when it was 595
Student : Teacher
9.8:1
was 10.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 618 | 63.3 | 9.8:1 | 17% (106) |
| 2023-24 | 607 | 60.3 | 10.1:1 | 14% (82) |
| 2022-23 | 610 | 58.3 | 10.5:1 | 13% (79) |
| 2020-21 | 662 | 61 | 10.8:1 | 16% (103) |
| 2017-18 | 658 | 63.3 | 10.4:1 | 18% (121) |
| 2015-16 | 642 | 63 | 10.2:1 | 23% (149) |
| 2010-11 | 568 | 45 | 12.6:1 | 0% (0) |
| 2000-01 | 531 | 53 | 10.0:1 | 28% (147) |
| 1990-91 | 595 | 44 | 13.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Buzz Aldrin Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 6% (658 to 618); teachers unchanged (63.3 to 63.3).
About Buzz Aldrin Middle School
The public middle-grades school Buzz Aldrin Middle School is located in UPPER MONTCLAIR, New Jersey. Its grade span covers grades 6 through 8, with 618 students on the rolls.
Montclair Public School District oversees Buzz Aldrin Middle School and 10 other schools, with 6,193 students in total.
More than half of enrollment at Buzz Aldrin Middle School is White: 51%. Next come 15% Hispanic, 15% Black, 12% multiracial, and 7% Asian. The county population is about 30% White. The diversity index for Buzz Aldrin Middle School is 67%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
The school lists 63.3 full-time-equivalent teachers and a student-to-teacher ratio of 9.8:1. Statewide, middle schools in New Jersey average 10.9:1. Free or reduced-price lunch covers 17% of the student body. It compares with 54% for public schools in Essex County.
Buzz Aldrin Middle School holds a B- allk12 Grade, placing it above 51% of New Jersey public middle schools.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Buzz Aldrin Middle School is -4.8 points: 52.0% actual, 56.8% predicted.
For Essex County, Census Bureau data show the median household earns about $80,789 a year, 39% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 11% of people live in poverty. Counting Buzz Aldrin Middle School, Essex County has 249 public schools.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Northeast Elementary School, is about 0.6 miles. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. Compared with its nearest neighbors, Buzz Aldrin Middle School ranks 7th of 9 on average proficiency.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as Suburb: Large, meaning it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Federal enrollment counts decreased from 662 (2020-21) to 618 (2024-25). Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio dropped to 9.8:1, from 10.8:1.
This page is set up for the Buzz Aldrin Middle School community to discuss open houses, carpools, and field trips. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Essex County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
863,002
Census ACS
Median income
$80,789
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
249
145,473 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Montclair Public School District
- Montclair High SchoolHigh · 1,925 students
- Hillside Elementary SchoolElementary · 684 students
- Glenfield Middle SchoolMiddle · 512 students
- Charles H. Bullock SchoolElementary · 438 students
- Watchung Elementary SchoolElementary · 406 students
- Northeast Elementary SchoolElementary · 391 students
Other schools in UPPER MONTCLAIR
- Northeast Elementary SchoolElementary · 391 students
- Bradford Elementary SchoolElementary · 388 students
Nearby schools
- Northeast Elementary School0.6 mi · 391
- Watchung Elementary School0.9 mi · 406
- Edgemont Elementary School0.9 mi · 251
- Bradford Elementary School0.9 mi · 388
- Brookdale Elementary School1.2 mi · 342
- Memorial Middle School1.3 mi · 468
Frequently asked questions
About Buzz Aldrin Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Buzz Aldrin Middle School?
Buzz Aldrin Middle School enrolls approximately 618 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does Buzz Aldrin Middle School serve?
Buzz Aldrin Middle School serves grades 06-08.
How many students per teacher at Buzz Aldrin Middle School?
Approximately 9.8:1 students per teacher at Buzz Aldrin Middle School.
How diverse is Buzz Aldrin Middle School?
Buzz Aldrin Middle School reports a student body of 51% White, 15% Hispanic, 15% Black, 7% Asian, 12% Two or more.
What district is Buzz Aldrin Middle School in?
Buzz Aldrin Middle School is part of Montclair Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.