Students from different middle schools are offered unequal educational opportunities and do not go into high school with the same knowledge. Depending on which middle school you have attended, there are different opportunities for which classes are available. While this may seem futile, it has caused a significant rift with which advanced classes students are able to take and the knowledge they have going into high school.

Hannah Vinegra ‘26 said she “noticed how there was a difference between which topics Bernards middle school students had been taught and the topics the Bedminster middle school students had been taught.” She explained how, “sometimes [Bernards middle school students] knew certain things that Bedminster students hadn’t been taught and vice versa.”

Factors such as which math class a person can take during high school is impacted by the class level of your middle school math class. Whereas in 8th grade there are only 2 math class levels, pre-algebra and algebra I, Bernards middle school has the opportunity for students to take 3 levels of math—pre-algebra, algebra I, and geometry. The Bernards middle school class setup allowed for students to advance further in high school math then the students that went to Bedminster.

In the high school geometry honors classes, only 8 of the 38 freshmen taking this course originated from Bedminster middle school. This means that 79% of the freshmen taking geometry honors are from Bernards middle school. In 1 of the advanced level geometry classes (which is a level lower than geometry honors) there are 9 freshmen, 7 of which are from Bernards middle school. As well as this, there are about 7 freshmen who take algebra II and only 1 is from Bedminster middle school.

Whereas Bedminster middle school only had 4 electives, all of which are required in your schedule, Bernards middle school had 5 or 6 to choose from and 3 would go into their schedule. This is just one example of the variety of classes Bernards middle school offers and how it differs from what it offered at Bedminster. Though classes such as electives may not matter immensely to someone, it exemplifies the difference in classes that are offered to Bernards middle school students as opposed to Bedminster middle school students.

Bernards middle school and Bedminster middle school also have different sports that students can participate in as part of the school. As opposed to Bedminster middle school, Bernards middle school had the option of participating in cross country and track; these sports are not offered at Bedminster. Unlike Bernards middle school, however, Bedminster has a lacrosse team.

Though the difference between the classes offered in the middle schools may seem insignificant, it matters in the long run, especially when there is a gap in the knowledge that is brought into high school. The curriculum in the different middle schools should be more aligned, especially in the core subjects, but also in sports and extracurricular activities.