Best Schools in Newton, New Jersey

Newton, New Jersey gives parents 9 ranked public schools to evaluate, spanning elementary through middle school grades. The city averages 6.4 out of 10 across those schools — a mid-range result that masks a wide spread between the strongest and weakest performers. One in three schools (33%) scores 7 or above, which means high-performing options exist but require deliberate targeting rather than default enrollment.

Florence M. Burd Elementary leads every other ranked school in the area with a 9.0 out of 10 — the clearest standout for families with young children. Long Pond School, a middle school rated 7.6, offers a strong continuation path after elementary. Fredon Township School rounds out the top tier at 7.1, giving families a third legitimately high-performing elementary option. These three schools pull the local average upward and represent the strongest case for Newton as a place to raise school-age children.

Below that top third, performance drops noticeably. Frelinghuysen Township Elementary comes in at 6.0 and Halsted Middle School at 5.8 — both below the city average of 6.4. The 3.2-point gap between the highest and lowest-rated middle schools in the area is wide enough to matter when comparing enrollment options.

The practical priority for parents is attendance boundaries. Address determines default assignment, and the performance spread here is too significant to ignore. Elementary-age families gain the most from knowing which school serves their address — Florence M. Burd's 9.0 sets a high bar that few local schools match. For middle school, the Long Pond versus Halsted comparison is the key decision: a 7.6 versus a 5.8 on the same scale is a real difference, not a rounding error. Confirm your boundary assignment before committing to a neighborhood.