Best Schools in Clifton, New Jersey

Clifton, New Jersey has 19 ranked public schools operating under one district. The average score across those schools is 5.4 out of 10, placing the city in the middle of the performance range. Only 2 schools — 11% of the ranked total — score 7 or above. That narrow concentration at the top matters for parents: strong options exist, but they're limited, and school choice within Clifton requires careful boundary research.

The highest-rated school is Clifton Early Learner Academies - Brighton, which scores 7.3 out of 10. School #9, also an elementary school, matches that score exactly. Both represent the ceiling of what Clifton's public system currently offers. Three additional elementary schools — School #1, School #3, and School #2 — cluster between 6.6 and 6.8, forming a solid second tier that still outpaces the district's 5.4 average by a meaningful margin.

The elementary tier is where Clifton's strongest schools are concentrated. Parents with children in kindergarten through fifth grade have the most access to higher-performing options. All five of the top-ranked schools are at the elementary level, which signals a gap worth investigating for families thinking beyond the early grades. Parents should look closely at middle and high school performance data before settling on a neighborhood, since the district's upper-grade picture is harder to assess from top-line rankings alone.

With just 11% of schools clearing the 7-point threshold and a citywide average of 5.4, school quality in Clifton varies significantly from one address to the next. Families should confirm their exact attendance zone before drawing conclusions — a few blocks can mean a different school and a meaningfully different score. For parents who want to start with the strongest baseline, Clifton Early Learner Academies - Brighton and School #9 are the two clear anchors in the district's upper tier and the logical first schools to visit or request data from.