List of Top 20 New Jersey High Schools: Cape May, Atlantic Counties Shut Out

The southernmost tip of New Jersey was left out of New Jersey Monthly’s list of Top 20 Public High Schools for 2014.

No schools from Cape May County or Atlantic County were included in the list, and only one school in Camden County and one in Burlington County made the list.

Morris County and Bergen County each had five schools make the list, while Monmouth County has three and Essex and Somerset County each have two.

Schools make the list, released every other year, based on their performance in multiple fields, including student/teacher ratio; student results on the SAT, HSPA and AP or IB tests; and graduation rates.

SAT results and Student Outcomes are criteria that were introduced this year.

The SAT performance score for each school is based on the percentage of students scoring 1,550 or better on the annual tests, a benchmark the DOE says is “associated with a high likelihood of college success.”

The Student Outcomes score includes “post-secondary enrollment,” a calculation of the percentage of students enrolled in a two- or four-year college at least 16 months after high school graduation.

“We specifically added these new data points to our scoring system to help identify the high schools that are doing the best job in preparing their students for success at the college level,” New Jersey Monthly editor Ken Schlager said.

Leflein Associates, an independent research company in Ringwood, put this list together based on New Jersey Department of Education data for the 2012-13 school year.

The magazine also ranks the Top 10 Vocational Schools, which includes no schools from southern New Jersey.

A list of the Top 100 public high schools appears in the September issue of New Jersey Monthly, which will be available on newsstands Aug. 26. The issue will also examine how prepared New Jersey is for the new Common Core-aligned PARCC tests and examines the pros and cons of the current school reform movement.

A complete list of all 339 schools rated by the magazine will be published Sept. 2 at www.njmonthly.com.

The list of Top 20 schools can be found below:

1. Chatham High School (Morris County)

2. Haddonfield Memorial High School (Camden County)

3. Northern Highlands Regional High School (Bergen County)

4. West Morris Mendham High School (Morris County)

5. Millburn High School (Morris County)

6. New Providence High School (Union County) *

7. Pascack Hills High School (Bergen County)

8. Glen Rock High School (Bergen County)

9. Marlboro High School (Monmouth County)

10. Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (Monmouth County)

11. West Morris Central High School (Morris County)

12. Holmdel High School (Monmouth County)

13. Ridge High School (Somerset County)

14. Moorestown High School (Burlington County)

15. Bernards High School (Somerset County)

16. Livingston High School (Essex County)

17. Tenafly High School (Bergen County)

18. Cresskill High School (Bergen County)

19. Mountain Lakes High School (Morris County)

20. Kinnelon High School (Morris County)

Should schools from Cape May and Atlantic counties have made this list? Which ones? Sound off in the comments sections below.