The Hawthorne Middle School is definitely a safe environment for students. The academics are great if your child's NJ Ask scores are above average. If your child falls in average or below average they place them with a team of teachers who may not be up to date with their core curriculum standards for the State. They are updating their instructional texts, however my experience is that they devote little time to teacher collaboration nor professional development. They are using old teaching methodologies and lack coordination in curriculum management. It seems that every teacher in average or below average class instruction is not given much direction to coordinate their curriculum instruction. The children are assessed twice a year by a Lernia program. Instead of doing individualized, differentiated instruction at their own skill level, teachers only assess children for extra help or advanced classroom work twice a year. They only offer help for children if they show severe learning difficulties. There's no response to intervention or intervention plan for students at risk.
The middle school is only great for those that have above average abilities. The average and below average learners suffer for lack of intervention within the general classrooms.