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Good school systems close to Manhattan would be Millburn, Short Hills, Livingston, Nutley, Glen Ridge, Rutherford, Caldwells. In Bergen Cty Ridgewood, Northern Highlands, Glen Rock have nice communities and great schools.
Good school systems close to Manhattan would be Millburn, Short Hills, Livingston, Nutley, Glen Ridge, Rutherford, Caldwells. In Bergen Cty Ridgewood, Northern Highlands, Glen Rock have nice communities and great schools.
Basically, the best school districts are located where the big bucks are also located, LOL.
try Caldwell/west Caldwell. the bus can pick you up right from bloomfield avenue, or even willowbrook mall. not a bad commute. my boyfriend commutes to times square everyday, no problem. park and ride.
You might want to do a search for similar posts on this forum - there are some great discussions. Otherwise, I can tell you about the best school districts in Union and Morris county, which are the two areas I have done most of my research (both have towns with a short to medium commute to Manhattan):
Union:
- Westfield (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- Summit (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- New Providence
- Berkeley Heights
- Mountainside
- Cranford (although maybe not as strong as the others listed, at least based on test scores)
Morris:
- Chatham
- Madison
Also, Millburn/Short Hills and Livingston have top schools (Essex County?). Check out http://www.njmonthly.com/topschools/hssearch.html for the top NJ high school list - this is where I started. There are also several great school districts in Bergen County, which I don't know as much about.
Regarding test scores: please remember that test scores are those of the class of students from the year before and are affected by many factors, including: transient populations (including wealthy families in a district for 1-3 years, renters), non-native speakers of English, students with special needs (evaluated, classified or not), number of years in the district, cultural differences/considerations, test biases (more on that in another post), socio-economic status, family issues such as divorce, death; a bad day, student effort, teacher preparation, laws like No Child Left Behind that force teachers and districts to teach for tests rather than just having overall great programs and so on. Academically gifted students can also be left behind if not properly taught and consideration given to social -emotional needs.
Many students who are very bright and can do well in school have poor test scores due to carelessness, test anxieties, failure to fully read directions and comprehend instructions possibly due to learning disabilities or an arrogance manifested by an attitude of "I know this so I don't need to read the directions", improperly filling in a machine-scored answer sheet, failing to proofread an essay, spending too much time on questions they don't know rather than responding to questions they do know; and the list goes on...
Also, machines that score tests can have malfunctions and so on, human errors, technical issues, etc.
Please remember that there are many highly intelligent but uneducated or poorly educated people out there - for example girls from countries where formal education for females is not a priority, anti-intellectuals, refugees, and more...
I state this as an educator.
Test scores are merely numbers and are frequently unfair representations of either student potential or teacher effectiveness.
Hi, I also need help. My husband has taken a promotion with his company which is located in Pitscataway, NJ. I am looking for areas close with the absolute best school districts for my child. I do not know where to begin. Please help. We thought about living in PA..
Look into Bernards Twp. (a.k.a. Basking Ridge). It will take you appx. 25-30 min. to get to Piscataway from there.
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