Best Public Schools in Atco, NJ

Atco has four schools: Thomas Richards Early Childhood Center serves PK–K, Atco Elementary School serves grades 1–2, and Winslow Township Middle School and Winslow Township High School serve older students. The elementary schools are in Waterford Township School District; the secondary schools are in Winslow Township School District. Test-score results are supplied only for the middle and high schools. The most important concern in the latest results is middle-school Mathematics: grade 7 proficiency was 15% versus 38% statewide, and grade 8 was 5% versus 23%.

Winslow Township Middle School stands out in Algebra I End of Course, with 44% proficient compared with 40% statewide; the high school scored 13% on that same measure, a 32-point difference between the schools. The high school’s clearest bright spot was 10th-grade Geometry: 29% proficient versus 13% statewide, a 16-point advantage. But its other Geometry results were lower than the state’s: 36% versus 52% for Geometry End of Course and 44% versus 50% in grade 9. Its weakest reported comparison was Algebra I End of Course, 13% versus 40% statewide.

Recent results show gains and setbacks rather than a consistent trend. Grade 7 ELA at Winslow Township Middle School rose 10 points, while the state result fell 1 point; at Winslow Township High School, Geometry End of Course fell 20 points as the state fell 5, widening the gap by 15 points. SchoolDigger rankings improved, but both schools remain in the lower part of their statewide lists: the high school moved from the 21st to the 27th percentile, and the middle school from the 15th to the 20th. In 2024–2025, student-teacher ratios were 11.6 and 11.8 at the high and middle schools, compared with 10.2 at each elementary school. Free/reduced lunch eligibility that year was 61% at each secondary school, versus 31% at Thomas Richards and 38% at Atco Elementary; these are contextual measures, not explanations of test results.