Best Public Schools in Basking Ridge, NJ

Basking Ridge’s six listed schools span elementary through high school: four elementary schools, William Annin serving grades 6–8, and Ridge serving grades 9–12; five are in Bernards Township School District, while Hamilton Primary is in Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District. Results at the elementary and middle schools are generally far above New Jersey averages: elementary ELA and math averages were about 31 percentage points above matched state results, and William Annin was 33 points above in ELA and 31 in math. The clearest area-wide strength is that school results substantially exceed state benchmarks across these comparable grades.

Mount Prospect Elementary School is the clearest elementary standout: its matched-grade averages were 88% in both ELA and math, compared with 76% and 75% at the other elementary schools—advantages of 12 and 13 points. It led five of six elementary grade-and-subject ELA/math comparisons; Cedar Hill School narrowly led grade 5 math, with 85.6% versus Mount Prospect’s 85.5%. In grade 5 science, Oak Street School had the lowest result at 43%, compared with 72% at Mount Prospect. SchoolDigger ranked Mount Prospect 10th of 1,331 New Jersey elementary schools, in the 99th percentile with five stars; it ranked William Annin Middle School 24th of 743 middle schools, also with five stars. William Annin’s ELA was consistently strong, but grade 8 math was 33%, well below its grade 6 result of 86% and grade 7 result of 74%.

Across matched elementary and middle results, ELA averages were essentially flat between test years, while math fell about 4 points and science fell about 9. Changes varied by school: Oak Street’s grade 5 science score dropped 23 points to 43%, while Ridge High School’s grade 9 ELA rose 6 points to 78%; Ridge’s graduation rate was 97%, compared with 89% statewide. The student-teacher ratio ranged from 8.8 at Mount Prospect to 12.3 at Cedar Hill. The reported free/reduced lunch eligible measure, for 2024–2025, ranged from 1% at Mount Prospect to 5% at Hamilton Primary School; these figures are context, not an explanation for school results.