After a five-year hiatus, the New Jersey Department of Education released its rankings of the state’s high schools based on standardized tests, chronic absenteeism rates, and graduation rates for 2021-2022 school year. Mike Yaple, spokesman for the DOE, cautioned, “the purpose of these reports is to serve as one important tool that can be used to identify successes and challenges, engage in dialogue, and work collectively toward improving the education and supports provided to all students.”

(According to nj.com, when asked why the DOE didn’t release the rankings for 2017-2018, the DOE declined to answer any questions. While the DOE doesn’t itself release the rankings, the Star-Ledger did the work for them.)

To no one’s surprise, the schools that cluster at the top are our elite magnet schools with strict admissions policies that include test scores, grade point averages, interviews, and teacher recommendations. At the bottom are schools that take everyone and serve students from low-income urban homes. Wondering where Asbury Park High School is? The list includes only high schools that serve grades 9-12; in 2021-22, due to falling enrollment, Asbury Park combined its middle and high school into one building, an experiment when the district failed to segregate 7th-8th graders from older students and parents protested.

Top Ten High Schools

Monmouth County’s magnet, High Technology High School

Monmouth County’s magnet, Monmouth County Academy of Allied Health and Science

Middlesex County’s magnet, Edison County Magnet School

Monmouth County’s magnet, Biotechnology High School

Bergen County’s magnet, Bergen County Technical Academies–Teterboro

Union County’s magnet, Union County Magnet School 

Morris County’s magnet, Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

Ocean County’s magnet, Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science, 

Orange County’s magnet, STEM Innovation Academy of the Oranges 

Hunterdon County’s magnet, Hunterdon County Academies

Note: the first non-magnet on the list is Chatham High School in the District of the Chathams, ranked #25.

Bottom Ten High Schools

Camden City’s Camden High School

Camden City’s Eastside High School

Paterson’s East Side High School

Plainfield’s East Side High School

Newark’s Malcolm X Shabazz High School

Passaic’s Passaic High School No. 12

Newark’s West Side High School

Newark’s Weequahic High School

Jersey City’s Lincoln High School

Keansburg’s Keansburg High School