2026 7-District Niche Rankings

Summit, Chatham, Millburn all bunched up in Top 10 school districts in the state; New Providence earns 11th place.

-Written by an Educator in the District

Niche has released their “2026 Best School District in New Jersey” rankings. 390 public school districts were ranked in New Jersey.

According to Niche, “ranking factors include state test scores, college readiness, graduation rates, teacher quality, public school district ratings, and more. SAT/ACT scores have been removed from this year’s rankings to reflect a general de-emphasis on test scores in the college admissions process.”

Using NJ21st’s seven-district dashboard of comparable districts surrounding Berkeley Heights, below are Niche’s 2026 rankings in comparison to 2025 (released one year ago):

#7: Summit Public Schools (consistent from last year)

#8: The School District of the Chathams (up 1 place)

#10: Millburn Township School District (down 7 places)

#11: New Providence School District (up 2 places)

#18: Westfield Public Schools (up 1 place)

#49: Madison Public Schools (up 7 places)

#72: Berkeley Heights Public Schools (down 6 places)

In Union County, the rankings go as follows:

#1: Summit (consistent with last year)

#2: New Providence (consistent)

#3: Westfield (consistent)

#4: Scotch Plains-Fanwood (consistent)

#5: Cranford (consistent)

#6: Berkeley Heights (consistent)

#7: Clark (up 2 places)

#8: Springfield (down 1 place)

#9: Roselle Park (down 1 place)

#10: Union (consistent)

Please note Mountainside was given a ranking of an “A-” but was not fully ranked as a K-8 district since Mountainside does not operate its own high school.

Over the past three years, the rankings have gone as follows:

Quick analysis:

• While Summit, Chatham, and Millburn usually fall within the top districts in New Jersey, Millburn suffered the largest decline of 7 spots.
• These rankings contradict the most recent U.S. News and World Report rankings of best high schools which showed Millburn High School on the rise, a decline for Chatham High School, and a big jump for Governor Livingston High School (Berkeley Heights).
• New Providence should be very satisfied being on a small but upward increase in each of the past two years.
• Of all districts mentioned above, Berkeley Heights should be the most concerned, suffering a drop each year of the past two years and having dropped out of Top 5 districts in Union County (Berkeley Heights ranked above Scotch Plains and Cranford two years ago and years prior). 
• Nonetheless, all districts in our seven-district dashboard, including Berkeley Heights, should know they are in a good place ranking within the top 20 percent of school districts in the state of New Jersey, with Summit, Chatham, Millburn, New Providence, and Westfield in the top 10 percent.

Other notable 2026 rankings (compared to last year) include Livingston (#9, up three places), Bernards (#12, up two places), Somerset Hills (#27, down seven places), Bridgewater-Raritan (#35, up six places), Edison (#45, down 12 places), and Morristown (#75, down 10 places).

The top school district in New Jersey, according to Niche, is Northern Valley Regional High School District in Demarest.

You can find the full Niche rankings linked here.

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