Best Public Schools in Zip Code 07203

ZIP code 07203 has eight listed schools—four elementary, two middle and two high schools—including schools in the Roselle Public School District and Union County Vocational-Technical School District. Six report test scores; Kindergarten Success Academy and Raymond J. Lesniak Experience Strength & Hope Recovery High School do not. The clearest area-wide concern is that matched grades 3–8 results averaged 30% in ELA versus 49% statewide, and 22% in math versus 43% statewide—shortfalls of 19 and 22 points, respectively, with math 3 points farther behind.

Harrison Elementary School is the strongest of the three comparable elementary schools, leading Washington Elementary School in all four grade 3 and 4 ELA and math comparisons by 33, 13, 26 and 18 points. Harrison came within 2 to 12 points of the state across those results; Washington ranked last of the three each time and was 21 to 35 points below the state. Dr. Charles C. Polk School fell between them in all four comparisons. At the middle-school level, Grace Wilday Junior High School had a particularly low grade 8 Algebra I result: 36% proficient, 39 points below the state. At Abraham Clark High School, NJGPA ELA was 8 points below the state, compared with a 23-point gap in math.

Results shifted in different directions over time: across 28 matched school results, the average school result fell by 2 points, and the gap to the state widened by about 2 points. Wilday had the largest average decline, 9 points, while Moore improved by 3 and Clark by 4; Wilday’s grade 8 Algebra I proficiency dropped 39 points from the prior year even as the state rate rose 2 points. SchoolDigger ranks Harrison 837 of 1,331 schools (37th percentile, 2 stars), versus Washington at 1,243 of 1,331 (7th percentile, 0 stars); these are SchoolDigger rankings, not test scores. Context figures do not explain the results: in 2024–25, Harrison’s free/reduced lunch eligible measure was 79%, compared with 75% at both Washington and Polk, while student-teacher ratios were 10.4 at Harrison, 14.4 at Washington and 9.8 at Polk.