Howell H.S. Receives B+ In Ratings Of N.J.'s Best Public Schools

Howell High School received a B+ overall in a recent ranking of the best public schools across New Jersey that was based on academics and a number of other factors.

The listing, produced by Niche, a website that tracks more than 22,000 schools across the country, rated more than 14,000 of them for its Best Public High Schools ranking, which “provides a comprehensive assessment of the overall experience at public high schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It uses data sourced from various government and public data sets, Niche’s own proprietary data, and 4,625,227 opinion-based survey responses across a variety of topics from 287,560 current students, recent alumni, and parents.“

Niche, which bills itself as “transforming the way people make big life decisions. By providing reviews and insight from everyday experts, we make choosing a neighborhood, college, or K-12 school a more transparent process,” was founded in 2002 by a group of Carnegie Mellon University students as CollegeProwler.com.

For the Best Public Schools rankings, Niche rated schools based on a variety of factors, including academics, health and safety, student culture and diversity, teachers, facilities and resources and sports and fitness and student/parent surveys, with 50 percent of each school’s “grade” based on academics.

“Niche notes: “A high ranking in Overall Experience generally indicates that:

• Students are very happy with their experiences in all aspects, including academics, teachers, health, safety, resources, facilities, extracurriculars, sports, and fitness;
• The school is an exceptional academic institution in terms of teachers, students, resources for learning, and student outcomes;
• The school is made up of a diverse population and fosters an accepting, positive school culture;
• Students are actively involved in a variety of extracurriculars and sports the school offers.”

Howell High School’s B+ rating earned it a ranking of 144th in New Jersey. The school received B or B+ in most areas, with A- in extracurriculars, health and safety and teachers.

“According to state standards, 92 percent of students at this school are considered proficient in math and/or reading. There have been 276 reviews written and they have been mostly positive,” the ranking report says.

You can read more about Howell’s grades and ranking here.

Eleven Monmouth County public schools cracked the top 100.

High Technology High School in Lincroft was ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and the nation, while Biotechnology High School in Freehold was fourth overall in New Jersey and the Marine Academy of Science and Technology at Sandy Hook ranked 10th. The Academy of Allied Health Sciences in Neptune came in at No. 14 and Communications High School in Wall was 16th. Rumson-Fair Haven (36), Red Bank Regional (44), Holmdel (50th), Marlboro (80), Colts Neck (88) and Shore Regional (94) also made it into the top 100.