Schools
West Essex High School Rises in Magazine's Rankings
Caldwell drops one place in New Jersey Monthly's biennial report on public high schools.
West Essex Regional High School in North Caldwell moved ahead 20 places and James Caldwell High School in West Caldwell dropped one slot in the just-released biennial ranking of 328 public high schools in the state by New Jersey Monthly Magazine.
West Essex is ranked 16th on the list—up from the 36th spot in 2010. The magazine notes that the average class size is 18.5 and the combined average SAT score is 1590. The regional high school serves students from North Caldwell, Essex Fells, Fairfield and Roseland.
“We are all very excited here at ," Superintendent Barbara Longo stated Tuesday. "This is really a reflection of the hard work of our teachers and administrators to raise student achievement.”
Find out what's happening in Caldwellswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
dropped from the 45th spot to number 46 on the new list. The school, which serves the towns of West Caldwell and Caldwell, has an average class size of 18.2. The combined average SAT score is 1585.
NJ Monthly Magazine’s 2012 rankings of the top public high schools will be featured in the September issue, which hits newsstands on August 28.
Find out what's happening in Caldwellswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The magazine made changes to its methodology this year, including a new graduation-rate calculation, eliminating student/computer ratio as a factor and increasing the weighting for data on test results, according to an article announcing the top public high schools.
“The school’s average class size is down sharply since the 2010 rankings, and its math scores in the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) have improved significantly. This at a time of state budget cuts and local belt-tightening,” according to the NJ Monthly Magazine article.
Here's a look at how a few other schools in the area performed:
School
2012 Ranking
2010 Ranking
Millburn
8
1
Glen Ridge
12
4
Summit
15
25
West Essex (North Caldwell)
16
36
Livingston
24
22
James Caldwell (West Caldwell)
46
45
Columbia (Maplewood)
47
75
Cedar Grove
74
103
Science Park (Newark)
116
69
West Orange
136
128
Nutley
140
160
Belleville
160
214
What do you think of all these rankings? Let us know in the comments section below.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.