Saddle Brook Moves Up in NJ Monthly High School Rankings

Saddle Brook High School just missed being among the top 25 percent of high schools in the state within its district factor group, according to New Jersey Monthly's Top Public High Schools list, released last week.

The school rose 17 spots to reach 153rd among all public high schools in the state on NJ Monthly's biennial list, which this year ranked 328 schools across New Jersey.

Among schools with socioeconomically similar student bodies, Saddle Brook High School ranked 20th out of 79 "C" and "D"-DFG-designated schools in the state and sixth of 11 such schools 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.

The high school made its greatest gains on the state's most recent school report card, which measures every public school in New Jersey both statewide and against their peers, in the Language Arts Literacy portion of the High School Proficiency Assessment.

While both the number of proficient and advanced proficient students increased for language arts, the school saw a marked drop in its HSPA math scores from the year before.

Student SAT scores were also down overall and for every individual section -- math, verbal and essay -- of the test for the 2010-2011 school year.

The student/faculty ratio crept slightly higher this past year, but still remains under 12 and the more than 60 percent of faculty members with advanced degrees outpaces many comparable schools.

Neither high school principal James Sarto nor district superintendent Kathryn Fedina could be reached for comment.

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