NCES CCD 2024-25 17 schools NJ

Best-Resourced Schools in Wayne, NJ

Compiled from official source data by .

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

PlainSchools home → About this data
17
Schools
12,154
Students
54.3/100
Avg Resource Index
12.4:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Broad resource and staffing advantage

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Wayne has more public-school enrollment than 85% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Wayne lands in the upper national tier on both the average Resource Investment Index and teacher staffing intensity. Those measures come from different inputs: the index combines reported counselors, gifted access, attendance, and staffing, while the staffing percentile compares the city's student-teacher ratio directly. Agreement across both measures is stronger evidence of broad reported capacity than either score alone, though neither is a test-score rating or a guarantee about an individual classroom.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

9 of Wayne's 17 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 4 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 30-point gap between Wayne Hills High School and Preakness Early Childhood Center shows the range hidden by Wayne's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 15%
School count
Top 19%
Resource Index average
95th percentile
Teacher staffing
85th percentile

Passaic County Technical Institute accounts for 29.3% of all Wayne public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Wayne-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

Wayne school enrollment varies 20× across entities

Wayne school enrollment ranges from 177 students (lowest) to 3,565 students (highest), a spread of 3,388 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. 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

Wayne student-teacher ratio is 12.4:1 — 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. Wayne Hills High School 68
2. Wayne Valley High School 67
3. George Washington Middle School 66
4. Schuyler Colfax Middle School 64
5. Diana C. Lobosco Stem Academy 63
6. Passaic County Technical Institute 61
7. Anthony Wayne Middle School 60
8. Theunis Dey Elementary School 60
9. Ryerson Elementary School 57
10. John F. Kennedy Elementary School 54
11. Lafayette Elementary School 47
12. Albert Payson Terhune Elementary 46
13. Pines Lake Elementary School 44
14. Randall Carter Elementary School 44
15. Packanack Elementary School 43
16. James Fallon Elementary School 41
17. Preakness Early Childhood Center 38

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Wayne

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 Diana C. Lobosco Stem Academy 69.5/100
  2. 2 Preakness Early Childhood Center 67.6/100
  3. 3 Ryerson Elementary School 61.5/100
  4. 4 John F. Kennedy Elementary School 61.1/100
  5. 5 Passaic County Technical Institute 57.6/100

What do families ask about schools in Wayne?

Which Wayne school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Wayne Hills High School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Wayne 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 Wayne, NJ? ▼

Wayne has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 12,154 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.4:1.

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.