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Hi, I would like to find out from people who live in somerset about the schools? my kids will be going to elementary school soon and i was planning on moving. i did read some place that high school was ranked 201 in NJ in 2012 and now its 150. Are the schools in somerset really improving and is it worth for me to move to somerset? Please advice. Thank you.
Somerset has a gritty part by New Brunswick and a few miles away rolling hills & farms. The schools aren't the greatest so I'd check whether people use private schools instead.
There is an old thread on this same question. The school reputation is mixed: the elementary schools are good; but shortly there after, things start "falling apart" for a lot of reasons (some folks with money send kids to private schools, some without a lot of money but with bright kids move out of town to townships with good high schools, etc).
However, if your kids are bright and they are able to get into honors classes, then middle school and high school may not be that bad! Being in honor classes ensure classroom of high achievers paired with good teachers.
Overall, the middle school and high school are getting better but still more room for improvement!!!! But a lot depends on parents, if education is important to you and you work with your kids at home - they will do very well within the school system.
Kids are assigned to elementary schools based on nearest school to home. There are 5 elementary schools, 1 Lower Middle School, 1 Upper Middle School, and 1 High school. Of the 5 elementary schools, the best 3 are: Franklin Park School, MacAfee Road School, and Hillcrest School. Kids from ALL the 5 elementary schools are combined to go to lower middle school (Sampson G Smith School) for 5th and 6th grade (then 7th & 8th at Franklin Middle School, and then Franklin High School).
There is no longer gifted and talented program in elementary schools - but kids are placed into Honors Math and Honors Language Arts for 7th grade (based on grade, test performance, and teachers recommendation).
I don't know if it is worth it for you to move to Somerset, but as more people that value education moves in, and become active with school and township activities, the schools will get better!!! Good luck with your decision.
I wouldn't recommend Franklin in Somerset Co. The school system is really not very good and there seems to be a lot of issues going on in the school district.
There are many other towns in Sommerset Co and surrounding areas with better schools, better neighborhoods, less violence, gang activities and crime. (to be fair there are some very nice areas within Franklin, but those neighborhoods are surrounded by troublesome acitivity that does not respect neighborhood boundries.)
Thank you all for the great responses. I think i will look in to other towns around with better school system as i have 2 kids and want to have a safe and good education for them
Thank you all for the great responses. I think i will look in to other towns around with better school system as i have 2 kids and want to have a safe and good education for them
Look in other parts of Somerset as well as the Brunswicks - East, North & South for good schools.
I have a daughter in kindergarten and we have put her in St Matthias not the public schools. My husband was a teacher at the middle school and high school. While there were a few good kids for the most part he said he would never put our child in the schools there. We are in the process of moving out of somerset for a few reasons and one reason being the schools. The other reason is the area has gotten worse over the 8 years we have been here.
Thank you all for the great responses. I think i will look in to other towns around with better school system as i have 2 kids and want to have a safe and good education for them
If you are looking at school systems, you should start with the department of education web site, and their school performance reports. Here's a link to their site, New Jersey Department of Education | 2012-2013 Performance Reports. From that page, just click on the town & then the specific school.
If you are looking at school systems, you should start with the department of education web site, and their school performance reports. Here's a link to their site, New Jersey Department of Education | 2012-2013 Performance Reports. From that page, just click on the town & then the specific school.
I too, find the NJ DOE website to be very useful in providing accurate, fact based info. If you want to see the schools report cards from over the past several years, you can do so here Department of Education - DOE Archives I find it quite useful to be able to not only see the most recent report, but to also see the reports from over the past several years so that you can clearly get an idea of not only how the schools is currently performing, but what trends you see in the school's performance - are the current scores an anomaly, or part of a general trend (either improving or declining)
KooalaNJ
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Schools are pretty bad
