NCES CCD 2024-25 7 schools NJ

Best-Resourced Schools in South Plainfield, NJ

Compiled from official source data by .

7 public K-12 schools in South Plainfield from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

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7
Schools
3,530
Students
59.7/100
Avg Resource Index
10.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, South Plainfield has more public-school enrollment than 37% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. South Plainfield's 7 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

4 of South Plainfield's 7 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

One district, but meaningful resource variation

South Plainfield's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 99th percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 20-point gap between South Plainfield Middle School and Roosevelt Elementary School measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.

City enrollment
Top 63%
School count
Top 65%
Resource Index average
99th percentile
Teacher staffing
95th percentile

South Plainfield High School accounts for 29.6% of all South Plainfield public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means South Plainfield-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South Plainfield school enrollment varies 4.1× across entities

South Plainfield school enrollment ranges from 256 students (lowest) to 1,044 students (highest), a spread of 788 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South Plainfield operates one school district — a single-district system

South Plainfield's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South Plainfield student-teacher ratio is 10.9:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. South Plainfield Middle School 68
2. John F Kennedy Elementary School 64
3. South Plainfield High School 61
4. Franklin Elementary School 61
5. Grant Elementary School 60
6. John E Riley Elementary School 56
7. Roosevelt Elementary School 48

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in South Plainfield

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Grant Elementary School 73.2/100
  2. 2 South Plainfield Middle School 71.9/100
  3. 3 South Plainfield High School 71.5/100
  4. 4 Roosevelt Elementary School 69.9/100
  5. 5 John F Kennedy Elementary School 69.6/100

What do families ask about schools in South Plainfield?

Which South Plainfield school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

South Plainfield Middle School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the South Plainfield schools in this federal-data comparison at 68/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in South Plainfield, NJ? ▼

South Plainfield has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,530 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 10.9:1.

Other Cities in New Jersey

Newark
81 schools
Jersey City
52 schools
Paterson
46 schools
Elizabeth
38 schools
Trenton
34 schools
Hamilton
27 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in New Jersey →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.