> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.johnmangini.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Warren NJ School Rankings 2026: How Watchung Hills and the K to 8 District Score - URL: https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-nj-school-rankings-2026/ - Published: 2026-08-27T10:08:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-16T01:43:59.000Z - Description: Watchung Hills opened Wednesday, up 30 places in the new US News rankings. The K through 8 schools open September 2. Every major source grades Warren well. - Author: John Mangini - Tags: Warren Local, Schools, watchung hills, warren township schools, rankings, #syn-fb, #syn-gbp, #syn-threads, #syn-nextdoor RecordThe primary document, reported. [What the labels mean](https://blog.johnmangini.com/editorial-standards/) This story updates [the school decisions tracker](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-school-decisions/), the running file that carries the current status. The short answer Every major source rates Warren's public schools above the state, and most rate them well above it. US News moved Watchung Hills up 30 places to 79th in New Jersey in the 2026-27 rankings released August 18\. Niche grades the high school and the Warren Township K to 8 district both A. On the spring 2025 state tests, Warren's grade 3 through 8 students were proficient at 69.6 percent in math against 41.0 percent statewide. The high school opened Wednesday and the K through 8 schools open September 2. 79th US News NJ rank for Watchung Hills, up 30 places A Niche 2026, the high school and the K to 8 district 97.4% four year graduation rate, state 91.3% 69.6% grades 3 to 8 math proficiency, state 41.0% [![Map of Warren Township, New Jersey, with its six public schools marked: Watchung Hills Regional High School, Woodland, Warren Middle, Central, Mt. Horeb and Angelo L. Tomaso.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/map-warren-schools.jpg)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/map-warren-schools.jpg?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) Warren's six public schools. 1 Watchung Hills Regional High School, 108 Stirling Road. 2 Woodland School, 114 Stirling Road. 3 Warren Middle School, 100 Old Stirling Road. 4 Central School, 109 Mount Bethel Road. 5 Mt. Horeb School, 80 Mount Horeb Road. 6 Angelo L. Tomaso School, 46 Washington Valley Road. Tap the map for a larger version. [Open Watchung Hills in Google Maps](https://maps.google.com/?q=40.652478,-74.475231&ref=blog.johnmangini.com). Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Watchung Hills Regional High School opened Wednesday morning, eight days after US News moved it up 30 places in its New Jersey rankings. The four Warren Township elementary schools and Warren Middle School [open Wednesday, September 2](https://blog.johnmangini.com/two-first-days-of-school/). Before the rest of the buses roll, here is what the rating sites and the State of New Jersey say about the schools Warren families send their children to. ## The report card at a glance - US News released its 2026-27 Best High Schools rankings on August 18\. Watchung Hills is 79th of 415 ranked New Jersey high schools and 1,429th of 17,945 nationally, up from 109th and 2,147th a year ago. It also ranks 148th on the national STEM list. - Niche gives Watchung Hills an A and ranks it 42nd of 428 public high schools in New Jersey and 4th of 14 in Somerset County for 2026\. The Warren Township School District also carries an A, and all five of its schools are graded A or A minus. - GreatSchools rates Watchung Hills, Central School and Angelo L. Tomaso School 9 out of 10\. Woodland School and Warren Middle School are 8 out of 10\. Mt. Horeb School is 7 out of 10\. Watchung Hills has won the GreatSchools College Success Award six times since 2018-19, most recently for 2024-25. - On the spring 2025 state tests, Warren's grade 3 through 8 students were proficient at 67.8 percent in English language arts against 53.6 percent statewide, and 69.6 percent in math against 41.0 percent statewide. Of the Warren Middle School students who took the Algebra I exam, 97.4 percent scored proficient. The statewide rate was 38.2 percent. - On the state's own report card for Watchung Hills, the four year graduation rate was 97.4 percent against 91.3 percent statewide, average SAT scores ran about 70 to 80 points above the state on each section, and 91 percent of AP exams taken earned a 3 or higher. - Woodland School holds a National Blue Ribbon, awarded for 2016-17\. It is the only school in Warren with one, and one of 13 schools on the state's list of Somerset County winners. | Source | Watchung Hills Regional | Warren Township K to 8 | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | Niche 2026 | A, 42nd of 428 NJ public high schools | A, all five schools A or A minus | | GreatSchools | 9 of 10, College Success Award | 9, 9, 8, 8 and 7 of 10 across five schools | | SchoolDigger 2025 | 104th of 434 NJ high schools | 102nd of 609 NJ districts | | US News 2026-27 | 79th in NJ, 1,429th in the US, 148th STEM | Not ranked as a district | | NJ state tests, spring 2025 | Above the state on every reported exam but one | District above the state in every grade and subject | | NJ Performance Report 2023-24 | 97.4% graduate in four years | 8.2% chronic absenteeism, state 13.8% | ## What the state measured last spring The New Jersey Department of Education publishes every school's results on the NJSLA, the spring test in English language arts, math and science, and on the NJGPA, the graduation assessment taken in grade 11\. The figures below come straight from the state's spring 2025 assessment data files, the same results that feed the 2024-25 School Performance Reports the state released on May 21, 2026\. Proficient means a student scored at Level 4 or 5 on the NJSLA, Level 3 or 4 on the science test, or graduation ready on the NJGPA. ### Warren Township School District, grades 3 through 8 | Test | Warren | New Jersey | | ------------------------------------ | ------ | ---------- | | English language arts, grades 3 to 8 | 67.8% | 53.6% | | Mathematics, grades 3 to 8 | 69.6% | 41.0% | | Algebra I, taken in middle school | 97.4% | 38.2% | | Science, grade 5 | 56.4% | 30.1% | | Science, grade 8 | 44.3% | 19.0% | Warren's math margin is the widest. In every grade from 3 through 8, Warren students cleared the proficiency bar at a rate 25 to 30 points above the state. The 77 Warren Middle School students who took Algebra I posted a mean scale score of 805 against a statewide 741, and 54.5 percent of them scored at Level 5, the highest band. Grade by grade, the strongest single results in the district were Woodland's third graders in English language arts at 84.6 percent proficient, Mt. Horeb's fourth graders at 83.9 percent, and Central's fifth graders at 82.3 percent in both English language arts and math. Central's fourth graders posted 83.3 percent in math and Woodland's third graders 82.0 percent. Every one of those figures is close to 30 points or more above the statewide rate for the same grade and subject. | School | ELA, grades 3 to 5 | Math, grades 3 to 5 | Science, grade 5 | | ----------------------- | ------------------ | ------------------- | ---------------- | | Central School | 71.4% | 79.3% | 64.5% | | Mt. Horeb School | 70.2% | 77.5% | 53.3% | | Angelo L. Tomaso School | 63.1% | 75.2% | 56.2% | | Woodland School | 69.9% | 65.5% | 51.2% | | New Jersey, same grades | 50.4% | 46.9% | 30.1% | Warren Middle School's sixth, seventh and eighth graders were proficient at 66.9 percent in English language arts against 56.7 percent statewide, and at 63.0 percent on the grade level math tests against 34.5 percent statewide, before counting the 77 students who sat for Algebra I instead. Eighth grade English language arts was the school's strongest reading result at 70.6 percent, with 31.9 percent of students at Level 5. ### Watchung Hills Regional High School | Test | Watchung Hills | New Jersey | | ------------------------------ | -------------- | ---------- | | English language arts, grade 9 | 69.1% | 49.9% | | Algebra I | 69.4% | 38.2% | | Algebra II | 100% | 80.4% | | Geometry | 38.0% | 56.5% | | NJGPA mathematics, grade 11 | 77.6% | 58.0% | | Science, grade 11 | 50.3% | 31.3% | Grade 11 students at Watchung Hills were graduation ready in math at 77.6 percent against 58.0 percent statewide. The state suppressed the school's NJGPA English language arts figure in the 2025 data file, a step the file says is taken to protect student confidentiality. On the prior year's report card the school's English language arts pass rate was listed simply as above 90 percent. The one line where the high school trailed the state is geometry, and it deserves a word of context. Spring NJSLA testing was optional for juniors and seniors in 2025, so the geometry figure covers freshmen and sophomores only. Watchung Hills tested 247 of them in geometry, about 63 percent of the number of ninth graders who took the state English test. Statewide the equivalent share was about 31 percent. Watchung Hills tests roughly twice the share of its ninth and tenth graders in geometry that New Jersey as a whole does, which fits a high school where one feeder alone, Warren Middle School, had 77 students take Algebra I the same spring with 97 percent of them proficient. All 34 students who took Algebra II scored proficient. ## The high school on the state's report card The most recent full School Performance Report in PDF form covers 2023-24\. It is where the graduation, college readiness and attendance figures live. - Four year graduation rate: 97.4 percent, against 91.3 percent statewide. Five year rate: 98.2 percent, against 92.6 percent. - SAT: 602 average in evidence based reading and writing against 530 statewide, and 600 in math against 519\. Participation was 69.2 percent, above the state's 62.7 percent. - ACT: 26 in English and 25 in math, against 24 and 23 statewide. Participation was 16.3 percent, more than double the state's 7.8 percent. - Advanced Placement: 52.5 percent of juniors and seniors were enrolled in at least one AP course. Students took 1,224 AP exams and 1,115 of them, 91 percent, scored 3 or higher. - Dual enrollment: 10.6 percent of students took a college course for credit. Niche's 2026 profile, which draws on student self reports, lists an average SAT of 1,310 from 803 responses and an average ACT of 30 from 180 responses, with a 95 percent graduation rate and a student to teacher ratio of 12 to 1. ## Attendance and growth Rankings lean on test scores. The state report card also tracks whether students show up and whether they grow, and Warren does well on both. Chronic absenteeism in the Warren Township School District was 8.2 percent in 2023-24, against 13.8 percent statewide, and the district met its federal target. Warren Middle School was at 9.6 percent. GreatSchools reports the share of students who attend regularly at 95 percent for Angelo L. Tomaso, 93 percent for Mt. Horeb, 92 percent for Central, 91 percent for Watchung Hills, and 90 percent for Woodland and Warren Middle, all against a state average of 85 percent. The state's median student growth percentile compares each student's progress to peers who started at the same level. A median of 50 is the state benchmark. Warren's K to 8 district posted a math median of 59 in 2023-24, which the state classifies as exceeding its standard. Warren Middle School's math median was 63\. The district met its federal accountability targets in English language arts, math and attendance. ## What each rating site says, and how it gets there ### Niche, 2026 Niche blends state data with parent and student surveys. Watchung Hills earns an A overall, an A plus for teachers, and an A for academics, college prep and sports. Statewide it ranks 42nd of 428 public high schools, 35th of 418 for teachers, and 44th of 407 for college prep. In Somerset County it is 4th of 14 overall and 3rd of 14 for teachers. The Warren Township School District carries an A overall with an A for academics and teachers, ranks 57th of 376 New Jersey districts as a place to teach, and holds a 4.56 out of 5 from 16 parent reviews. Warren Middle School ranks 93rd among New Jersey public middle schools. Among the state's public elementary schools, Mt. Horeb ranks 120th, Angelo L. Tomaso 162nd, Woodland 178th and Central 237th, with Central graded A minus and the other three A. ### GreatSchools GreatSchools rates on a 1 to 10 scale from state test scores, student progress, equity and, for high schools, college readiness. Watchung Hills, Central and Angelo L. Tomaso rate 9\. Woodland and Warren Middle rate 8\. Mt. Horeb rates 7\. Watchung Hills has received the College Success Award, which GreatSchools gives to schools whose graduates enroll in college and stay there, six times since 2018-19, including the 2024-25 award. The site credits the school's AP program and its Project Lead The Way engineering curriculum. ### SchoolDigger, 2025 SchoolDigger ranks on state test results alone. It places the Warren Township School District 102nd of 609 New Jersey districts, better than 83 percent of the state. Warren Middle School ranks 108th of 752 middle schools with four stars. Central ranks 151st of 1,347 elementary schools, also four stars, Mt. Horeb 184th after rising 70 places this year, Angelo L. Tomaso 261st and Woodland 317th. Watchung Hills ranks 104th of 434 high schools, better than 76 percent of the state, with four stars. ### US News, 2026-27 US News ranks only high schools and weights college readiness, curriculum breadth, state test proficiency and performance, how well underserved students perform, and graduation rates. Its 2026-27 edition, released August 18, 2026, places Watchung Hills 79th of the 415 New Jersey high schools it ranks and 1,429th of 17,945 nationally, with an overall score of 92.04 out of 100 and an Award Winning badge. That is a jump of 30 places in the state and 718 nationally from the 2025-26 edition, which had the school 109th and 2,147th. Watchung Hills also ranks 84th among high schools in the New York metro area and 148th in the national STEM High Schools list. The scorecard behind the rank: 97 percent graduation, 81 percent reading proficiency and 78 percent math proficiency against state figures of 60 and 50, 51 percent of students taking at least one AP exam and 47 percent passing at least one. Within New Jersey the school ranks 68th on state assessment proficiency and 73rd on college curriculum breadth. US News says the data come from the 2022-23 through 2024-25 school years. ### Public School Review, 2026 Ranks Watchung Hills 661st of 2,184 New Jersey public schools of all grade levels and puts its science proficiency in the top 10 percent of the state. ## Why the sites disagree with each other A school can be 42nd on Niche and 79th on US News in the same year without either being wrong. Niche counts survey responses from parents and students. US News gives heavy weight to how underserved students perform, a category where a school with 3 percent of students counted as economically disadvantaged has little data to score on. SchoolDigger looks only at test results and reranks each time the state releases a new file. GreatSchools includes a growth measure that rewards schools whose students improve faster than their starting point predicts. Read them together and the picture is consistent: Warren's schools sit in the top tier of New Jersey public schools on every measure that is published. ## The rankings and the housing market The market attached to these schools: the trailing twelve month median sale price in Warren Township is $1,177,500 across 176 closed sales through August 26, 2026, against $827,000 across 277 closings in the same window five years earlier, a rise of 42 percent on considerably fewer sales. These figures cover every residential property type in the MLS, including townhouses and condominiums, not detached houses alone. Attached product sells below detached in Warren, so a detached only median would run higher. No public record separates how much of that price belongs to the schools, and this site will not guess. The two facts simply sit side by side: the ratings above, and a seven figure median. The full picture is on the [Warren real estate market page](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-real-estate-market/). ## What is ahead this year The Warren Township Board of Education meets Monday, August 31, at 6:30 p.m. at Warren Middle School, two days before the K through 8 first day. The district's 2026-27 budget carries enrollment at 1,734 students, up from 1,692, and its [Planning for Growth work on an intermediate school model](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-schools-planning-for-growth/) continues. Watchung Hills, whose constituent member municipalities are Warren Township, Watchung Borough and Long Hill Township, enrolls about 1,650 students and ran a full eight period day Wednesday, its first of the year. Its Board of Education next meets September 15 at 108 Stirling Road. Dates for both districts, including Back to School Nights as they post, are on the [Warren calendar](https://blog.johnmangini.com/calendar/). The [schools reference page](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-schools/) carries addresses, board schedules and budget figures for both districts. What this post could not verify The 2024-25 School Performance Reports were released on May 21, 2026 as an interactive site only, so the graduation, SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement and chronic absenteeism figures above come from the 2023-24 reports, the last year the state published as a PDF. The state suppressed Watchung Hills' 2025 NJGPA English language arts result in its data file, so that figure is the prior year's. No readable 2024-25 chronic absenteeism figure for Watchung Hills was available. Niche's SAT and ACT averages are student self reports and are labeled that way. Each rating site uses its own method and its own data year, so the ranks are not interchangeable. Sources 1. New Jersey Department of Education, Spring 2025 NJSLA and NJGPA statewide assessment data files, School Year 2024-25 Assessment Reports. Proficiency rates computed from the school, district and state rows for each grade and subject. [https://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/results/reports/](https://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/results/reports/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 2. New Jersey School Performance Reports: the 2024-25 public release of May 21, 2026, and the 2023-24 reports for Watchung Hills Regional High School (35-5550-050), the Warren Township School District (35-5470) and Warren Middle School (35-5470-033). [https://rc.doe.state.nj.us/](https://rc.doe.state.nj.us/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 3. Niche, 2026 rankings and profiles for Watchung Hills Regional High School and the Warren Township School District, accessed August 26, 2026\. [https://www.niche.com/k12/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-warren-nj/](https://www.niche.com/k12/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-warren-nj/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 4. GreatSchools profiles for Watchung Hills Regional High School and the five Warren Township schools, accessed August 26, 2026\. [https://www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/warren/](https://www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/warren/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 5. SchoolDigger, 2025 rankings for the Warren Township School District and Watchung Hills Regional High School. [https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1722005320/school.aspx](https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1722005320/school.aspx?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 6. US News Best High Schools 2026-27, Watchung Hills Regional High School profile, accessed August 26, 2026\. The 2025-26 ranks are as reported by Patch on August 19, 2025\. [https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-jersey/districts/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-district/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-12799](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-jersey/districts/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-district/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-12799?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 7. Public School Review, Watchung Hills Regional High School profile, 2026\. [https://www.publicschoolreview.com/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-profile](https://www.publicschoolreview.com/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-profile?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 8. New Jersey Department of Education, National Blue Ribbon Schools. [https://www.nj.gov/education/recognition/schools/blueribbon/somerset.shtml](https://www.nj.gov/education/recognition/schools/blueribbon/somerset.shtml?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 9. Warren Township Board of Education and Watchung Hills Regional Board of Education, 2026-27 calendars and meeting schedules. [https://www.warrentboe.org/](https://www.warrentboe.org/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) and [https://www.whrhs.org/](https://www.whrhs.org/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 10. Garden State MLS closed sales for Warren Township, medians computed August 26, 2026\. Method on the [data and methodology page](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-data-and-methodology/). Warren schools reference - [Warren schools](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-schools/) - [Property taxes](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-property-taxes/) - [Warren by the Numbers](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-by-the-numbers/) - [School dates on the calendar](https://blog.johnmangini.com/calendar/) - [Homes for sale in Warren](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-nj-homes-for-sale/) ![John Mangini](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/john-headshot.jpg) John Mangini Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier [![NextHome Premier](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/nexthome-premier-stacked.png)](https://www.nexthomepremier.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) Warren Township resident and full time broker, licensed in New Jersey since 2002\. Warren, Local. is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above. [732.236.1087](tel:+17322361087) [john@nexthomepremier.com](mailto:john@nexthomepremier.com) [102 Town Center Drive, Warren](https://maps.google.com/?q=102+Town+Center+Drive,+Warren,+NJ+07059&ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [JohnMangini.com](https://www.johnmangini.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [Reviews on Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/profile/John%20Mangini?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [About this site](https://blog.johnmangini.com/about/)