Enrollment
334
Middle
DISTRICT 307 · STATE 578
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·EAST ORANGE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 340423005930
John L. Costley Middle School
116 HAMILTON ST, EAST ORANGE, NJ 07017 · (973) 266-5660 · Essex County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL334 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 0% of New Jersey public middle schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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
13.4:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.2:1 · STATE 10.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
10%
33 students
DISTRICT 19% · STATE 41%
Community
0
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 7 | 218 | 65% |
| Grade 8 | 116 | 35% |
Student demographics
45%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 37% · 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
John L. Costley Middle School→East Orange Campus High School
Based on grade levels within East Orange School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
NJSLA 2024-25 . % Meeting or Exceeding ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
11.4%
NJ avg 53.1% . -2.2pp since 2023
Math
6.8%
NJ avg 41.6% . +2.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 11 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 7 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
NJSLA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 11.4% | 6.8% |
| 2023-24 | 13.6% | 4.6% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of NJ schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
7.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
60.8%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-53.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 8% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 61% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 John L. Costley Middle School
John L. Costley Middle School's state test result (7.6% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| John L. Costley Middle School this school | 334 | 9.9% | 7.6% |
| Patrick F. Healy Middle School EAST ORANGE | 322 | 14.0% | 8.3% |
| Sojourner Truth Middle School EAST ORANGE | 264 | 27.3% | 9.3% |
| Lumberton Middle School LUMBERTON | 356 | 31.7% | 36.4% |
| Burlington Township Middle School at Springside BURLINGTON | 822 | 38.8% | 37.9% |
| Westampton Township Middle School WESTAMPTON | 525 | 38.9% | 38.2% |
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 John L. Costley Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In New Jersey | In Essex County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 7.6% | #422 of 433 | #27 of 27 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.8% | #424 of 437 ▲ 1 | #27 of 28 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 11.4% | #426 of 437 ▼ 10 | #28 of 28 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 334 | #352 of 445 | #23 of 29 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.4:1 | #379 of 417 | #23 of 28 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 45.1% | #298 of 419 | #17 of 28 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 9.9% | #356 of 436 | #20 of 27 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -18.1% | #72 of 282 | #7 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
334
-115 (-26%) vs 2020
-28% since 1990-91, when it was 467
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
was 16.0:1
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 | 334 | 24.9 | 13.4:1 | 10% (33) |
| 2023-24 | 320 | 25.5 | 12.6:1 | 59% (190) |
| 2022-23 | 333 | 27.9 | 11.9:1 | 59% (196) |
| 2020-21 | 449 | 28 | 16.0:1 | 73% (326) |
| 2017-18 | 408 | 35 | 11.7:1 | 58% (235) |
| 2015-16 | 372 | 45 | 8.3:1 | 74% (277) |
| 2010-11 | 440 | 43 | 10.2:1 | 70% (308) |
| 2000-01 | 607 | 49 | 12.4:1 | 83% (505) |
| 1990-91 | 467 | 30 | 15.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for John L. Costley Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (408 to 334); teachers down 29% (35 to 24.9).
About John L. Costley Middle School
John L. Costley Middle School, a small middle school, is located in EAST ORANGE, New Jersey. It reports enrollment of 334 students in grades 6 through 8. That puts enrollment 42% below the 578-student average for middle schools in New Jersey.
John L. Costley Middle School is one of 19 schools in East Orange School District, which enrolls 8,348 students in total.
Of every 100 students at John L. Costley Middle School, about 70 are Black. The school is also 23% Hispanic and 4% White. The Black share of the county population is lower, at 36%. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, John L. Costley Middle School scores 45%.
Its ratio of 13.4:1 is based on 24.9 full-time-equivalent teachers. Middle schools in New Jersey average 10.9:1, 2.5 fewer students per teacher than here. The share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch is 10%. That is lower than the 54% average for public schools in Essex County.
Among New Jersey public middle schools, John L. Costley Middle School outscored 0%, which works out to an F on the allk12 Grade.
After accounting for student poverty, John L. Costley Middle School is in the bottom 10% of New Jersey schools. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results of 7.6% is 53.2 points below the 60.8% predicted for its lunch-eligibility share.
In the surrounding county, Essex County, median household income comes to about $80,789, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 39% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 11%. The county has 249 public schools and about 145,473 students.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Sojourner Truth Middle School, is less than a tenth of a mile. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. John L. Costley Middle School places 5th of 5 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
The school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more, according to its NCES locale (Suburb: Large).
The school's enrollment decreased 26% from 2020-21 to 2024-25. From 2020-21 to 2024-25, the ratio dropped from 16.0:1 to 13.4:1.
Use the discussion section to ask about open houses, carpools, and field trips at John L. Costley Middle School. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
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 East Orange School District
- East Orange Campus High SchoolHigh · 1,798 students
- Cicely L. Tyson Community Middle/High SchoolHigh · 701 students
- East Orange STEM Academy High SchoolHigh · 646 students
- Edward T. Bowser Sr. School of ExcellenceElementary · 612 students
- Langston Hughes Elementary SchoolElementary · 554 students
- Cicely L. Tyson Community Elementary SchoolElementary · 481 students
Other schools in EAST ORANGE
- East Orange Campus High SchoolHigh · 1,798 students
- Cicely L. Tyson Community Middle/High SchoolHigh · 701 students
- East Orange STEM Academy High SchoolHigh · 646 students
- Edward T. Bowser Sr. School of ExcellenceElementary · 612 students
- Langston Hughes Elementary SchoolElementary · 554 students
- Cicely L. Tyson Community Elementary SchoolElementary · 481 students
Nearby schools
- Sojourner Truth Middle School0.0 mi · 264
- Patrick F. Healy Middle School0.1 mi · 322
- Edward T. Bowser Sr. School of Excellence0.1 mi · 612
- East Orange Campus High School0.2 mi · 1,798
- Wahlstrom Early Childhood Academy0.3 mi · 157
- J. Garfield Jackson Sr. Academy0.4 mi · 247
Frequently asked questions
About John L. Costley Middle SchoolHow large is John L. Costley Middle School?
John L. Costley Middle School enrolls approximately 334 students in grades 06-08.
Is John L. Costley Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
John L. Costley Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at John L. Costley Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at John L. Costley Middle School is approximately 13.4:1 (25 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at John L. Costley Middle School?
At John L. Costley Middle School, the student body is approximately 4% White, 23% Hispanic, 70% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Is John L. Costley Middle School public or private?
John L. Costley Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by East Orange School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.