See Where Nutley Landed On List Of ‘Best High Schools’ In NJ

NUTLEY, NJ — A website has released its latest rankings for the “Best Public High Schools” in New Jersey, including Nutley High School.

Niche — a website known for its extensive rankings of schools, universities and communities — recently released rankings that analyze data for 92,743 public schools, 30,112 private schools and 11,820 school districts nationwide. The effort included hundreds of public high schools in New Jersey; see the full list and learn about its methodology here.

Nutley High School ranked 168th out of 425 public high schools on the list in New Jersey. According to Niche, here are some other state rankings for Nutley High School:

• Best Public High School Teachers In New Jersey – 52nd out of 421
• Best College Prep Public High Schools In New Jersey – 186th out of 408
• Best High Schools For Athletes In New Jersey – 285th out of 614

Niche said its rankings differ from others that rely almost exclusively on test scores and academic performance in that it also includes input from students, alumni and parents, as well as quantitative data from sources such as the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate teachers, resources and facilities.

But high school rankings also have their critics. In 2013, journalist and former professor and The Atlantic writer John Tierney argued that high school rankings are "nonsense."

"Parents might be able to use that information to find an affordable residence near good schools, while still leaving themselves within reasonable reach of their place of employment," Tierney wrote. "It's harder to fathom the logic for ranking high schools nationwide. Few are the families who will move out of state or across the country on the basis of claims about school quality."

School ratings can have the power to drive segregation, contends Jack Schneider, an associate professor of education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

"Privileged parents compete against each other in the real estate market to buy homes near 'good' schools, while lower-rated schools suffer reputational harm and serve increasingly disadvantaged students," Schneider wrote last October for WBUR.

This article contains reporting by Josh Bakan, Patch staff

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