West Orange Elementary Schools Rank in Niche.com’s Top 100 Best Elementary School Teachers in New Jersey

WEST ORANGE, NJ — After a comprehensive assessment of the quality of teachers at public elementary schools in all 50 states by Niche,com, four of West Orange’s elementary schools made the cut for Best Elementary School Teachers in New Jersey.

When Niche.com, a ranking and review site, ranked the teachers in 31,706 public elementary schools in New Jersey, the faculties at Redwood, St. Cloud, Mt. Pleasant and Hazel Schools all qualified in the Top 100. In addition, these four schools as well as Gregory, received Overall Niche rankings of “A,” with Washington and Pleasandale receiving a ranking of “A-“

Once all of Niche’s selected factors were considered, the 2015 study ranked Redwood Elementary School (68), St. Cloud Elementary School (77), Mount Pleasant Elementary School (78) and Hazel Avenue Elementary School (94) in New Jersey for Best Elementary School Teachers.

For the purposes of the ranking, Niche considered factors such as academic grades, average teacher salaries, district teacher grades, teacher absenteeism, as well as teachers in their first and second years and student-teacher ratios. Ultimately, these high rankings indicate that “West Orange students are extremely happy with the general instruction and educational outcomes, that the schools are invested in the teachers and that the teachers are invested in the students.”

According to Niche’s Methodology for the ranking, the factors are meant to represent a healthy balance between statistical rigor and practical relevance in the ranking. Once each factor was processed, Niche produced a standardized score for each factor at each elementary school that evaluated the distance from the average and allowed each school’s score to be compared against others in a “statistically sound manner.”

Each factor was weighted ensuring that a single factor cannot have a dramatically positive or negative impact on the school’s final score. After thorough research and careful attention to general parent and student preferences, an overall score was calculated for each elementary school by applying the assigned weights to each individual factor.

Niche said it wants to remind users not to focus on the number in the ranking so much as the grade because there could be a large gap between schools. In other words, a school ranked at 30 might have the same scores as one at 16. The overall grade is the element that provides context and insight into how each school compares to others included in the ranking.

Of the 57,553 elementary schools analyzed, 48,176 received a grade, with 31,706 of those also receiving a numerical ranking.

Credits: TAPinto
By DANIELLE SANTOLLA