500 Best Schools In America: N.J. Schools High On List

When you ask people why they live in New Jersey, you’ll hear one answer over and over… “it’s the schools.”

Just in time for the start of the school year, Newsweek released its annual list of the top public high schools in America for 2015 on Wednesday.

Overall, the New Jersey had six of the top 10 public high schools in the country. Here is the list, with the national rank in parenthesis:

Here is the list:

1. High Technology High School, Lincroft (2)
2. Academy For Mathematics Science And Engineering, Rockaway (3)
3. Union County Magnet High School, Scotch Plains (4)
4. Bergen County Academies, Hackensack (5)
5. Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies, Edison (7)
6. Academy Of Allied Health And Science, Neptune (9)
7. Academy For Allied Health Sciences, Scotch Plains (11)
8. Millburn High School, Millburn (13)
9. Middlesex County Academy for Allied Health & Biomedical Sciences, Woodbridge (21)
10. Academy For Information Technology, Scotch Plains (24)
11. Bergen County Technical High School - Teterboro, Teterboro (28)
12. Ridge High School, Basking Ridge (37)
13. Holmdel High School, Holmdel (41)
14. Hillsborough High School, Hillsborough (42)
15. Marine Academy Of Science And Technology, Highlands (62)
16. New Providence High School, New Providence (68)
17. Chatham High School, Chatham (69)
18. Bernards High School, Bernardsville (70)
19. Summit Senior High School, Summit (80)
20. Union County Tech, Scotch Plains (83)
21. Haddonfield Memorial High School, Haddonfield (84)
22. Cherry Hill High School East, Cherry Hill (85)
23. Ridgewood High School, Ridgewood (102)
24. Hopewell Valley Central High School, Pennington (107)
25. Cresskill High School, Cresskill (109)
26. Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School, Bridgewater (118)
27. Marine Academy Of Technology And Environmental Science, Manahawkin (121)
28. Northern Valley Regional High School At Demarest, Demarest (127)
29. Sparta High School, Sparta (141)
30. Watchung Hills Regional High School, Warren (142)
31. Morris County School Of Technology, Denville (147)
32. Academy For Performing Arts, Scotch Plains (149)
33. West Morris Central High School, Chester (151)
34. Randolph High School, Randolph (164)
35. Mahwah High, Mahwah (169)
36. Moorestown High School, Moorestown (171)
37. Dr. Ronald McNair High School, Jersey City (172)
38. West Morris Mendham High School, Mendham (180)
39. Glen Rock High School, Glen Rock (195)
40. Montville Township High School, Montville (212)
41. Northern Valley Regional Old Tappan High School, Old Tappan (241)
42. Mountain Lakes High School, Mountain Lakes (248)
43. Wayne Hills High School, Wayne (259)
44. West Essex High School, North Caldwell (274)
45. Northern Highlands Regional High School, Allendale (275)
46. Marlboro High School, Marlboro (285)
47. Metuchen High School, Metuchen (288)
48. Voorhees High School, Glen Gardner (320)
49. Allentown High School, Allentown (329)
50. North Hunterdon High School, Annandale (347)
51. River Dell Regional High School, Oradell (354)
52. Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington (357)
53. Fair Lawn High School, Fair Lawn (426)
54. Hanover Park High School, East Hanover (478)
55. Whippany Park High School, Whippany (483)
56. Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, Scotch Plains (485)

METHODOLOGY

The rankings were compiled using several metrics, including graduation rate, college enrollment rate, SAT and ACT scores, AP and IB scores and participation, teacher-student ratio and dropout rates.

“Some factors are more important, especially since our rankings focus on college readiness,” Jim Impoco, editor in chief of Newsweek, told Patch via email. “We place emphasis on criteria like college enrollment and graduation rate since we know that those are some of the biggest indicators of whether students are prepared for college.”

This year’s rankings were weighted by:

• Enrollment Rate—25 percent
• Graduation Rate—20 percent
• Weighted AP/IB/Dual Enrollment composite—17.5 percent
• Weighted SAT/ACT composite—17.5 percent
• Change in student enrollment between 9th-12th grades, to control for dropout rates—10 percent
• Counselor-to-Student Ratio—10 percent

“The top 20 schools on the ‘America’s Top High Schools’ are neck and neck. They all have perfect or near-perfect college enrollment and graduation rates,” Impoco said. “You start to see more variation as you look further down the list and also when you look at the factors that have less weight, like test scores.”

See the full rankings here.