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.


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