Long Valley Schools Among NJ’s Top For Grades K-8: U.S. News

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Long Valley Middle School made the list of New Jersey's top 125 middle schools, with Washington Township's elementary schools having placed among New Jersey's best elementary schools, according to a brand-new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

For the inaugural list, U.S. News published rankings and data on more than 80,000 public elementary and middle schools across the United States.

Schools are ranked at the state and district levels. The best charter schools and best magnet schools ranked as stand-alone categories.

U.S. News placed the Long Valley Middle School at 111 of 715 in New Jersey middle schools, according to the new list, with elementary schools in Long Valley having also made the rankings among New Jersey's best elementary schools.

Here’s a look at where Long Valley Middle School placed among five middle schools on the list statewide:
110: South Orange Middle School, South Orange-Maplewood School District
111: Long Valley Middle School, Washington Township School District
112: Crossroads North Middle School, South Brunswick School District
113: Green Hills School, Green Township School District
114: Passaic Academy For Science and Engineering, Passaic City School District

Here’s a look on the list of where Long Valley's elementary schools stand of 1,370 elementary schools statewide:
351: Old Farmers Road School
674: Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School
880: Benedict A. Cucinella School

To determine the rankings, U.S. News used data from the U.S. Department of Education to analyze two areas at each school:

• Math and reading proficiency — or how well students perform on state assessments.
• Math and reading performance — or how well they perform compared with expectations.

The state assessment data used in the rankings is from the 2018-19 school year and, therefore, predates any effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on test-taking.

Nationally, California has 5,534 ranked elementary schools — the most of any state — followed by Texas at 4,446; New York at 2,211; Florida at 2,128; and Illinois at 2,038 schools.

California also has the most ranked middle schools with 2,319, followed by Texas at 1,942; Illinois at 1,243; New York at 1,219; and Florida at 997.

See the complete list of 2021’s Best K-8 Schools.