Best Public Schools in Zip Code 07081

Zip code 07081 has five Springfield schools: three elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. Across the reported grade-matched results, elementary and middle school performance is generally above state levels, though individual subjects and schools differ substantially. In 2025–2026, the 11 reported ELA results averaged 62%, compared with 50% for the state, and the nine elementary and middle school math results averaged 58%, compared with 46% statewide. The most important exception is fourth-grade math: Edward V. Walton Primary School scored 75%, while Thelma L. Sandmeier Elementary School scored 42%—a 33-point gap, with Sandmeier 5 points below the state.

James Caldwell Elementary School led the elementary schools in third-grade ELA and math, scoring 68% in both; Walton led fourth grade in both subjects at 75%. Sandmeier was the low point in fourth-grade math, while Caldwell also scored 73% in that grade and subject. At middle school, Florence M. Gaudineer Middle School had 100% proficiency among the reported seventh-grade Algebra I group, versus 93% statewide. Jonathan Dayton High School has a mixed profile: its grade 8 ELA was 66% versus 53% statewide, but its grade 8 math was 5% versus 23%; its 11th-grade NJGPA ELA and math were 89% and 63%, respectively, both above state rates.

Recent changes are mixed: the average school-over-state advantage grew by 2 points in repeated ELA comparisons but fell by 3 points in math. Sandmeier’s fourth-grade math dropped 12 points between reported years, while Caldwell’s third-grade ELA rose 15 points. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile rankings rose from 69 to 82 for Caldwell and from 72 to 83 for Walton, while Sandmeier’s fell from 70 to 59 in the latest year. Caldwell and Sandmeier each enroll 276 students, with student-teacher ratios of 13.1 and 12.0, yet their results differ notably. All five schools report the same low-income measure, free/reduced lunch eligible, for 2024–2025; figures range from 12% at Walton to 20% at Dayton. These are contextual observations, not explanations of performance; year-to-year score changes compare successive grade cohorts, not the same students.