Summary:
Zip code 06002 contains only two middle schools, both part of the Bloomfield School District: Carmen Arace Intermediate School (grades 5–6, 210 students) and Carmen Arace Middle School (grades 7–8, 202 students). The two schools share an address at 390 Park Avenue and operate as a single campus split by grade span, serving 412 students in grades 5 through 8. Both schools serve a majority low-income population, with free/reduced lunch eligibility at 53.3% and 55.0% respectively.
Despite sharing a campus, there are meaningful differences. Carmen Arace Middle School posts the lower student-teacher ratio of the pair at 8.4, compared to 11.6 at Carmen Arace Intermediate, and spends more per student: $24,039 versus $21,918. Chronic absenteeism is nearly identical — 12.0% at the intermediate school and 12.4% at the middle school — both well below the district's 20.2% and the state's 16.4% rates. Academically, the two schools perform at almost the same overall level, with average proficiency of roughly 28.6% at Carmen Arace Intermediate and 28.9% at Carmen Arace Middle, trailing state proficiency by about 13 to 25 percentage points in most subjects.
The most notable concern is Carmen Arace Middle School's declining state rank, slipping from the 36th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 28th percentile in 2025–2026, along with a sharp drop in 8th-grade math proficiency from 33.3% to 20.8%. On a more positive note, 6th-grade math at Carmen Arace Intermediate improved markedly, rising from 21.9% to 31.4% proficient. Both schools generally score at or above Bloomfield district averages, making them relatively strong within the district, but the district itself lags far behind Connecticut state averages. Given that attendance is already strong and per-student spending and staffing ratios are favorable, these results suggest that academic support and instructional quality — not attendance — are the primary areas needing attention.
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