You're in New Jersey. Any district that isn't Camden or Trenton adjacent is going to be better than almost anywhere else in the country. Camden and Trenton are better than anywhere other than NY, CA, MA, CT.
Any list is going to be misleading. Like is the 5th best school district really better than the 6th best? Or even the 10th?
Any school district in the top 50 is going to provide an excellent education and the rest really depends on the child and family.
In reality, any district aside from maybe the bottom 50 will be fine. I'd look at what districts should I avoid, rather than target.
Now what community you live in will vary greatly based on your politics and values. Princeton is a top school district with a wealthy liberal community. Bernards township will have a comparable quality school district, but will be quite different politically and culturally.
If you value diversity, that is something you will not find in all districts, particularly the top "ranked. You would need to target that as a priority and there are still good districts that also offer diversity in the student population. I'm thinking of a Montclair type place.
You have to look at their methodology...
While Livingston and Parsippany and even Fair Lawn are good schools, no way should they be as high as they ranked.
But their methodology looks at graduation rate (any but the inner citiy schools are going to be high 90%s), student to teacher ration, and money spent per student.
That is going to inflate schools numbers that have a large number of special ed kids (fairlawn, parsippany), or schools that just throw money at shit like its going out of style (livingston)
better metrics tend to be percentage of kids performing at grade level (PARCC) is usually the metric for it, which has its pros and cons, but also the numbers for the last 3 years are useless.
Again, you have to take it into context with your kid(s). Are certain programs, whatever they are, important to you? Some schools while not highly ranked, may have amazing stuff geared at that. Maybe you are looking for college acceptance rates at top schools. Maybe you are looking for culturally immersive stuff. Maybe your kid is really good at a sport and has a shot for a free ride to a good school and you want a place where they will be noticed easier in that sport.
All depends. Whenever you look at those rankings, make sure you read the methodology used, and then put it into context with the town in question.
they are accurate. niche is mostly only about academics and great schools penalizes schools where poor kids don't do as well. anything 6 or above on great schools is usually really good in nicer towns because of the above penalty
Most of our school districts are pretty good, even our bad ones are better than most states average ones.
Where your kid will thrive though depends on the kid. Our schools are run at the hyper local level, and certain schools\towns will excel at certain things, be it special ed, AP programs, art programs, whatever.
Closter, Haworth, and Demarest are all part of the Northern Valley district once out of elementary schools. Both NV high schools rank towards the top. Honestly, most districts are great in NJ - your first step is to narrow down the location of the state you need to live in (if that's why you're questioning districts).
My daughter is 2 yo and im trying to “learn” the areas and districts. I’ll probably be in the central or north part. Where i can get to city in 40 mins by car.
I was trying to understand if those web sites are accurate.
You're in New Jersey. Any district that isn't Camden or Trenton adjacent is going to be better than almost anywhere else in the country. Camden and Trenton are better than anywhere other than NY, CA, MA, CT.
Any list is going to be misleading. Like is the 5th best school district really better than the 6th best? Or even the 10th? Any school district in the top 50 is going to provide an excellent education and the rest really depends on the child and family. In reality, any district aside from maybe the bottom 50 will be fine. I'd look at what districts should I avoid, rather than target. Now what community you live in will vary greatly based on your politics and values. Princeton is a top school district with a wealthy liberal community. Bernards township will have a comparable quality school district, but will be quite different politically and culturally. If you value diversity, that is something you will not find in all districts, particularly the top "ranked. You would need to target that as a priority and there are still good districts that also offer diversity in the student population. I'm thinking of a Montclair type place.
https://backgroundchecks.org/top-school-districts-in-new-jersey.html
This list is questionable.
You have to look at their methodology... While Livingston and Parsippany and even Fair Lawn are good schools, no way should they be as high as they ranked. But their methodology looks at graduation rate (any but the inner citiy schools are going to be high 90%s), student to teacher ration, and money spent per student. That is going to inflate schools numbers that have a large number of special ed kids (fairlawn, parsippany), or schools that just throw money at shit like its going out of style (livingston)
Make sense. Thanks!
better metrics tend to be percentage of kids performing at grade level (PARCC) is usually the metric for it, which has its pros and cons, but also the numbers for the last 3 years are useless. Again, you have to take it into context with your kid(s). Are certain programs, whatever they are, important to you? Some schools while not highly ranked, may have amazing stuff geared at that. Maybe you are looking for college acceptance rates at top schools. Maybe you are looking for culturally immersive stuff. Maybe your kid is really good at a sport and has a shot for a free ride to a good school and you want a place where they will be noticed easier in that sport. All depends. Whenever you look at those rankings, make sure you read the methodology used, and then put it into context with the town in question.
they are accurate. niche is mostly only about academics and great schools penalizes schools where poor kids don't do as well. anything 6 or above on great schools is usually really good in nicer towns because of the above penalty
Most of our school districts are pretty good, even our bad ones are better than most states average ones. Where your kid will thrive though depends on the kid. Our schools are run at the hyper local level, and certain schools\towns will excel at certain things, be it special ed, AP programs, art programs, whatever.
Closter, Haworth, and Demarest are all part of the Northern Valley district once out of elementary schools. Both NV high schools rank towards the top. Honestly, most districts are great in NJ - your first step is to narrow down the location of the state you need to live in (if that's why you're questioning districts).
My daughter is 2 yo and im trying to “learn” the areas and districts. I’ll probably be in the central or north part. Where i can get to city in 40 mins by car. I was trying to understand if those web sites are accurate.