Upper Township Middle School

All three of Upper Township School DIstrict's schools are Certified Wild School Sites by the NJ DEP Division of FIsh and WIldlife. These schools have had landscape enhancements installed by students as part of their study of NJ curriculum content standard 9 - 21st Century Life and Career skills. Working with the kitchen staff, students also redirect an average of 10 lbs of kitchen scraps out of our municipal waste stream composting rich soil for use in the school's pollinator and vegetable gardens. The middle school professional staff of educators use hands on learning opportunities that supplement instruction for the full spectrum of abilities from special needs through regular ed and exemplary students. I think this makes Upper Township Middle School an especially good and above average school.
—Submitted by a parent

UTMS is an excellent school. Both of my children attend this school and are getting an excellent eduction. Dedicated teachers and great parental involvement make this an excellent school. It is much better than many of the other schools in the area.
—Submitted by a parent

ASK scores show proficient level in math at 11% for math special ed and 42% for literacy. My child goes to this school and needs special education services, but never receives any help. They don't know the first thing about special ed. - it's like we are back in the 1970s. . This is NOT a good school if your child is in special ed. The Child Study Team is not knowledgeable about programs They write objectives and then just blow it off when your child doesn't meet them. They must know some special education teachers are not performing effectively in the classroom, particularly with these scores, but they don't do anything about it. Why aren't they using interventions in special ed if their scores are this low? I have not seen anything done to intervene and help the special ed students.
—Submitted by a parent

The teachers in this school use whatever reading or writing program they want to use. My daughter went a whole year and then I found out the teacher never taught writing, not one day the entire year. In one reading class they listen to a book and don't even read it., If there was a private school or a charter school near here, I would go there instead. Teacher training is very poor. Parents support their children, this is why the students are successful. They pay for tutors or study with their own children when their children fail.
—Submitted by a parent

we recently move to marmora n.j. my son attends middle school, I can't begin to tell you what a pleasure it is to be apart of this wonderful school the teachers and staff are kind ,professional and really care about the children that are intrusted to them my son struggled in his last school in just one year, they found the areas in which he needed help and provided us with the option to improve his reading and comprehension skills this is a 5 star school
—Submitted by a parent

Nice friendly atmosphere!
—Submitted by a staff

I speak as the parent of a 6th grade student who has attended other district schools. My child has been challenged, and stimulated to succeed especially in the area of math with the help of an outstanding blend of well educated, knowledgable teachers and guided by Mr. Vincent Palmeri the Principal who is EXCEPTIONAL. The district is suffering due to poor leadership and vision but, that is changing!
—Submitted by a parent

As a parent of an 8th grade student at UTMS, I am quite pleased with the quality of education my child is receiving. My child has attended other school districts and I feel the quality of her education at UTMS has far surpassed what she was taught in the other districts. There may be problems with the school district as a whole, but I am quite confident that my child will be properly prepared for high school at the end of this year.
—Submitted by a parent

This school suffers because of an overall lack of leadership by the Superintendent and the school board. Many fine programs such as the Impact and Gifted and Talented programs have been watered down because of weak administration. At the same time academic programs are suffering, they increase the sports extracurricular activites. At the same time, they can't afford new text books. Go figure!
—Submitted by a parent