Warren NJ School Rankings: Watchung Hills and the K-8 Schools
Every published ranking places Warren's public schools above the New Jersey average, most of them well above. Watchung Hills Regional High School is 79th of 415 ranked New Jersey high schools and 1,429th of 17,945 nationally in the US News 2026-27 edition, up from 109th and 2,147th the year before. Niche grades the high school and the Warren Township K-8 district both A. GreatSchools rates the six schools 7 to 9 out of 10. On the State of New Jersey's own 2024-25 report card, Watchung Hills graduated 98.4 percent of its class in four years against 91.8 percent statewide, and Warren's grade 3 to 8 students were proficient in math at 72.0 percent against 42.0 percent. This page keeps the current figures from every source in one place, explains how each ranking is built, and is refreshed when each publisher issues a new edition.
The schools themselves, addresses, boards, budgets and calendars, are on the Warren schools page. The August 27, 2026 back to school roundup is here. This page is the running scoreboard.
The scoreboard
| Source and edition | Watchung Hills Regional High School | Warren Township School District, K-8 |
|---|---|---|
| US News Best High Schools, 2026-27 (August 18, 2026) | 79th of 415 in New Jersey, 1,429th of 17,945 nationally, 84th in the New York metro area, 148th on the STEM list, score 92.04 of 100 | US News has ranked elementary and middle schools separately since 2021. This page has not read those pages yet |
| Niche, 2026 edition (September 2025) | A overall, A plus for teachers, 42nd of 428 public high schools in New Jersey, 4th of 14 in Somerset County | A overall, 4.56 of 5 from 16 parent reviews, all five schools A or A minus, 57th of 376 New Jersey districts as a place to teach |
| GreatSchools (pages dated May 6, 2026) | 9 of 10, College Success Award six times since 2018-19 | 9, 9, 8, 8 and 7 of 10 across the five schools |
| SchoolDigger, 2025 edition (state scores of December 2025) | 104th of 434 New Jersey high schools, four stars | 102nd of 609 New Jersey districts |
| NJ School Performance Report, 2024-25 (May 21, 2026) | 98.4% four year graduation by the state method, 89.7% by the federal method, 6.9% chronic absenteeism, SAT 602 reading and 591 math, summative score at the 59th percentile of New Jersey high schools | 72.0% math and 67.9% English proficiency, 9.5% chronic absenteeism, school summative scores from the 54th to the 84th percentile |
| Public School Review, 2026 | 661st of 2,184 New Jersey public schools of all grade levels | not ranked as a district |
US News figures were read from the school's US News page on September 23, 2026. Niche, GreatSchools, SchoolDigger and the state figures were re-checked the same day. The Niche 2027 edition is expected in the fall of 2026 and this page will move to it when it appears.
The six schools
| School | Address | Grades | Enrollment 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watchung Hills Regional High School | 108 Stirling Road | 9 to 12 | 1,644 |
| Warren Middle School | 100 Old Stirling Road | 6 to 8 | 554 |
| Central School | 109 Mount Bethel Road | PreK to 5 | 335 |
| Mt. Horeb School | 80 Mount Horeb Road | PreK to 5 | 341 |
| Angelo L. Tomaso School | 46 Washington Valley Road | K to 5 | 261 |
| Woodland School | 114 Stirling Road | K to 5 | 215 |
Ratings and the state's measures, school by school
| School | Niche 2026 | GreatSchools | SchoolDigger 2025 | Proficient, ELA / math, 2024-25 | Chronic absenteeism |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watchung Hills | A, 42nd of 428 NJ public high schools | 9 of 10 (test scores 8, college readiness 9) | 104th of 434 high schools, 4 stars | 68.7% / 51.8% | 6.9% |
| Warren Middle | A, 93rd of 751 NJ middle schools | 8 of 10 (test scores 8, progress 6) | 108th of 752 middle schools, 4 stars | 67.7% / 69.5% | 8.6% |
| Central | A minus, 237th of 1,422 NJ elementary schools | 9 of 10 (test scores 9, progress 9) | 151st of 1,347 elementary schools, 4 stars | 70.4% / 78.2% | 10.6% |
| Mt. Horeb | A, 120th of 1,422 | 7 of 10 (test scores 9, progress 5) | 184th of 1,347, 4 stars | 69.6% / 77.0% | 10.8% |
| Angelo L. Tomaso | A, 162nd of 1,422 | 9 of 10 (test scores 8, progress 8) | 261st of 1,347, 4 stars | 61.8% / 74.3% | 8.7% |
| Woodland | A, 178th of 1,422 | 8 of 10 (test scores 8, progress 7) | 317th of 1,347, 4 stars | 71.6% / 67.0% | 9.6% |
Enrollment is the state's 2024-25 count. Central and Mt. Horeb include the district's preschool classes, 36 and 61 children. Proficiency is the share of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the spring 2025 NJSLA, all grades tested at the school, as the state's 2024-25 School Performance Report database prints it. The statewide figures are 53.0 percent in English language arts and 42.0 percent in math, and 14.4 percent chronic absenteeism.
What the State of New Jersey measured, 2024-25
The School Performance Reports are the official record. The 2024-25 edition was released May 21, 2026, and the figures below come from the state's downloadable database files rather than a rating site's summary of them.
Watchung Hills Regional High School
| Measure | Watchung Hills | New Jersey |
|---|---|---|
| Four year graduation rate, Class of 2025, state method | 98.4% | 91.8% |
| Four year graduation rate, Class of 2025, federal method | 89.7% | 88.9% |
| Five year graduation rate, Class of 2024, state / federal method | 97.8% / 90.1% | 92.9% / 89.1% |
| Chronic absenteeism | 6.9% | 14.4% |
| Average SAT, reading and writing / math | 602 / 591 | 533 / 519 |
| Average ACT, English / math / reading / science | 26 / 25 / 26 / 25 | 24 / 24 / 25 / 24 |
| Average PSAT, reading and writing / math | 535 / 520 | 470 / 455 |
| Grades 11 and 12 enrolled in an AP or IB course | 53.4% | 37.5% |
| Took at least one AP or IB exam | 46.7% | 32.0% |
| Scored 3 or higher on an AP exam, or 4 on IB | 44.7% | 25.5% |
| Dual enrollment, college credit in high school | 11.9% | 30.0% |
| NJGPA grade 11, graduation ready in English / math | 90.7% / 77.8% | 81.3% / 58.5% |
| NJSLA proficient, English language arts / math, all tested grades | 68.7% / 51.8% | 53.0% / 42.0% |
| Accountability summative score, and its percentile among New Jersey high schools | 57.24, 59th percentile | |
| Enrollment | 1,644 |
Two graduation rates appear because the state prints two. The state method counts every student who graduates within four years of entering ninth grade. The federal method, the one used for accountability, follows the federal education law's definition of the cohort and runs lower everywhere: 89.7 percent at Watchung Hills against 88.9 statewide. The 98.4 figure is the one the rating sites quote.
The one line where Watchung Hills trails the state is dual enrollment, the share of students taking a college course for credit while in high school, and the school's overall math proficiency figure carries a geometry result below the state's. The August 27 roundup explains the geometry number: spring testing was optional for juniors and seniors in 2025, and Watchung Hills tests about twice the share of its ninth and tenth graders in geometry that the state does. Algebra I proficiency at the school was 69.1 percent against 38.1 statewide, and Algebra II 100 percent against 78.7.
Warren Township School District, grades PreK to 8
| Measure | Warren Township | New Jersey |
|---|---|---|
| NJSLA proficient, English language arts, all tested grades | 67.9% | 53.0% |
| NJSLA proficient, mathematics, all tested grades | 72.0% | 42.0% |
| Algebra I, taken in middle school, proficient | 97.4% | 38.1% |
| Science, grade 5 / grade 8, proficient | 56.4% / 44.3% | 30.1% / 19.0% |
| Chronic absenteeism | 9.5% | 14.4% |
| Enrollment, including 97 preschoolers | 1,706 |
The statewide English language arts figure includes grade 9, which a K-8 district does not test, so the state column on that row is a slightly different population. Chronic absenteeism means missing ten percent or more of enrolled days. The district's rate moved from 8.2 percent in 2023-24 to 9.5 in 2024-25 while the state fell from 14.9 to 14.4. Watchung Hills went the other way, 9.2 to 6.9.
How each ranking is made
A school can be 42nd on Niche, 79th on US News and 104th on SchoolDigger in the same year without any of the three being wrong. They measure different things.
- US News ranks high schools on six factors: a college readiness index built from AP and IB participation and pass rates, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance against expectations, how underserved students perform, college curriculum breadth and the graduation rate. It publishes each factor's rank. For 2026-27 Watchung Hills ranks 68th in New Jersey on assessment proficiency, 73rd on curriculum breadth, 100th on graduation rate, 101st on college readiness and 117th on assessment performance. US News says the edition uses the most current data, from the 2023-24 school year. The underserved student factor is where a school with 3 percent of students counted as economically disadvantaged has little to score on.
- Niche combines state and federal data with surveys of students and parents, and grades academics, teachers, college prep, clubs, sports and more. The survey share is why its ranks can differ from the purely statistical sites. Niche grades the high school and the K-8 district, not the schools against each other.
- GreatSchools rates 1 to 10 on state test scores, student progress against similar students, equity between student groups where the data allow, and for high schools, college readiness. Its College Success Award tracks whether graduates enroll in college and persist. Progress is the sub rating that moves the K-8 schools around: Central scores 9 on it, Mt. Horeb 5.
- SchoolDigger uses state test results alone and reranks every school when a new year of scores is released, so it swings more than the others. Watchung Hills moved from 57th to 104th between its 2024 and 2025 editions on the same school.
- The State of New Jersey publishes no ranking, but its accountability report scores every school on proficiency, growth, graduation, absenteeism and English language progress, and prints where the score falls among schools of the same type. For 2024-25: Woodland at the 84th percentile of New Jersey elementary and middle schools, Central 83rd, Mt. Horeb 70th, Warren Middle 61st, Angelo L. Tomaso 54th, and Watchung Hills at the 59th percentile of high schools. The School Performance Report prints the measured figures with the statewide comparison and flags whether each school met its federal targets.
Who attends what
Two districts serve Warren. The Warren Township School District runs four elementary schools and Warren Middle School, with preschool classes at Central and Mt. Horeb. Its 2026-27 budget carries enrollment at 1,734 students, and its Planning for Growth recommendation is an intermediate school model, three K to 3 schools and one grades 4 and 5 school, with Angelo L. Tomaso named as the grades 4 and 5 location in the district's August 31, 2026 update and a board vote anticipated September 28, 2026. Watchung Hills Regional High School is a separate district whose constituent member municipalities are Warren Township, Watchung Borough and Long Hill Township. Green Brook is not a member. It sends its grades 9 to 12 students to Watchung Hills on a tuition basis, and its board appoints one seat on the Watchung Hills board, beside five elected from Warren, two from Watchung and two from Long Hill. Both districts, their boards, budgets and calendars, are on the schools page, and their dates are on the Warren calendar.
Awards on the record
- Woodland School holds a National Blue Ribbon, awarded for 2016-17 and announced September 28, 2017, one of 13 Somerset County schools on the state's list. It is the only Warren K-8 school with one. The federal Blue Ribbon program ended on August 29, 2025, and New Jersey's own 2025 list carried no Warren school.
- Watchung Hills is on the College Board's 2025 AP School Honor Roll at the silver level, and holds the GreatSchools College Success Award for 2024-25, its sixth since 2018-19.
- Watchung Hills received a state Lighthouse Award for teacher workforce diversity in 2021, covering 2021 through 2023.
What the rankings do not tell you
- Whether a school fits a particular child. Every figure here is an average across hundreds of students.
- How much of Warren's home prices the schools account for. No public record separates that, and this site does not guess. The market attached to these schools is on the market page.
- Year to year change in the school itself. Most movement in a rank is movement in the ranking's method or in the other schools.
When this page updates
US News publishes in August. Niche publishes in the fall. SchoolDigger reranks after the state releases scores in December. GreatSchools updates on its own schedule and prints the date on each page. The state's School Performance Reports arrive each spring. Each row above names its edition, and a figure that has not been re-checked in the current cycle says so.
- US News Best High Schools 2026-27, Watchung Hills Regional High School, read September 23, 2026. The 2025-26 ranks as reported by Patch, August 19, 2025. www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-jersey/districts/watchung-hills-regional-high-...
- Niche, 2026 rankings and profiles for Watchung Hills Regional High School, the Warren Township School District and each school. www.niche.com/k12/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-warren-nj/rankings/
- GreatSchools profiles for the six schools, pages dated May 6, 2026. www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/warren/2120-Watchung-Hills-Reg-High-School/
- SchoolDigger, 2025 rankings for Watchung Hills, the Warren Township School District and each school. www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1722005320/school.aspx
- New Jersey Department of Education, School Performance Reports 2024-25, district and school database files, released May 21, 2026. www.nj.gov/education/sprreports/download/DataFiles/2024-2025/Database_SchoolDetail.xlsx
- Watchung Hills Regional High School District, regionalization feasibility study (Rowan University, November 2025) and Board of Education page. www.whrhs.org/uploaded/District/BOE/Watchung_Hills_Regional_Feasibility_Study_FINAL.pdf
- New Jersey Department of Education, National Blue Ribbon Schools, Somerset County list and program status. www.nj.gov/education/recognition/schools/blueribbon/somerset.shtml
- College Board, AP School Honor Roll 2025, New Jersey recipients. secure-media.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-school-honor-roll-recipients-new-jersey-2025.pdf
- Public School Review, Watchung Hills Regional High School, 2026. www.publicschoolreview.com/watchung-hills-regional-high-school-profile
- Warren Township Schools, Planning for Growth FAQ, last updated September 18, 2026, and this site's coverage of the recommendation. sites.google.com/warrentboe.org/planningforgrowthfaq/home
Updated September 23, 2026. Rankings move to each publisher's new edition as it appears and the state figures to each spring's report.
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.