Fair Lawn Rises in NJ Monthly High School Rankings

is movin' on up.

The school rose 11 spots, surpassing socioeconomically similar Bergen County schools Rutherford, Emerson, Pascack Valley, Fort Lee and River Dell to reach 65th among public high schools in the state, according to New Jersey Monthly's Top Public High Schools list. NJ Monthly's biennial list, which this year ranked 328 schools across New Jersey, was released last week.

Among schools within its district factor group, Fair Lawn High School ranked 16th in the state and fourth in the county.

The rankings, which were compiled by Leflein Associates, an independent research company in Ringwood, take into consideration school environment, student performance and student outcomes. In Leflein's calculation, both student SAT and HSPA scores and student outcomes vis-a-vis adjusted graduation rate are weighted more heavily than is school environment, which takes into account class size, student/faculty ratio, percentage of faculty with advanced degrees and AP tests offered.

In May,   of "America's Best High Schools," despite getting knocked down a few pegs from the year prior.

In Newsweek's list, Fair Lawn ranked 649th in the country and 52nd in the state, among public high schools. In 2011, Newsweek ranked Fair Lawn 400th in the nation and 33rd in New Jersey.

At the time, Superintendent Bruce Watson said part of Fair Lawn's decline in the Newsweek ranking was due to the magazine including more charter and magnet school in its rankings this year.

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