Christopher Columbus Middle School

As a well-populated middle school in CLIFTON, New Jersey, Christopher Columbus Middle School works with 1,092 students from grades 6 through 8, operated by Clifton Public School District. By comparison, New Jersey's public schools average about 578 students each, so Christopher Columbus Middle School sits 89% bigger than that benchmark.

Clifton Public School District comprises 19 schools with combined enrollment of 10,516 students; Christopher Columbus Middle School is among them.

Demographically, Christopher Columbus Middle School shows that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 71% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 19% White, 5% Asian, 3% Black. By comparison, Passaic County as a whole is about 44% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 120 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 9.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 10.9:1 average. Around 74% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Passaic County runs at roughly 61%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Christopher Columbus Middle School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 25.6% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 32.2%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Passaic County indicate median household earnings sit near $87,522, 31% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. Christopher Columbus Middle School is one of 155 public schools in Passaic County (combined enrollment of about 83,237 students).

Nearest neighbor: School #1, around 0.2 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Christopher Columbus Middle School comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 30.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Christopher Columbus Middle School has ticked down 9%, going from 1,201 students in 2018 to 1,092 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share declined from 26% to 19%. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 10.4:1 in 2018 to 9.1:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Christopher Columbus Middle School typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.