Wood-Ridge Doesn't Make Sense (Fair Lawn, Paramus: 2015, condo, house)
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I'm curious to know why the schools in Wood-Ridge aren't better. Outside from the industrial areas, the town is pretty nice and homes seem well taken care of. It's close to NYC and the median household income was $100,624 in 2015, according to CD. Other suburban towns in that income range and similar demographics in Bergen County have better schools. I will use NJ Monthly stats. Although we all know they aren't accurate, they give an overall good gist.
Paramus:
MHI: $104,031
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 57
2016: 58
Fair Lawn:
MHI: $103,268
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 70
2016: 72
Wood-Ridge:
MHI: $100,624
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 232
2016: 200
Midland Park:
MHI: $92,472
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 78
2016: 61
Leonia:
MHI: $89,335
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014:94
2016: 85
Rutherford:
MHI: $87,596
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 124
2016: 74
I'm curious to know why the schools in Wood-Ridge aren't better. Outside from the industrial areas, the town is pretty nice and homes seem well taken care of. It's close to NYC and the median household income was $100,624 in 2015, according to CD. Other suburban towns in that income range and similar demographics in Bergen County have better schools. I will use NJ Monthly stats. Although we all know they aren't accurate, they give an overall good gist.
Paramus:
MHI: $104,031
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 57
2016: 58
Fair Lawn:
MHI: $103,268
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 70
2016: 72
Wood-Ridge:
MHI: $100,624
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 232
2016: 200
Midland Park:
MHI: $92,472
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 78
2016: 61
Leonia:
MHI: $89,335
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014:94
2016: 85
Rutherford:
MHI: $87,596
NJ Monthly high school rank:
2014: 124
2016: 74
Nothing against City Data (after all, I love this place), but I will eat my proverbial hat if Wood-Ridge has a higher median HHI than Leonia or Midland Park. And Paramus definitely has a higher median HHI that $104,000.
As to why Wood-Ridge schools don't rank higher, well... the town was never bad, but, it's primarily a no-frills, mostly blue-collar 'burb. Its sudden increase in affluence is a recent phenomenon. Some of the methodology used may be relying on data from the 2000 Census (the last set of data used to classify towns into District Factor Groups by the NJ Dept. of Ed) when Wood-Ridge was still a typical Southern Bergen County 'burb. In addition, all the new affluent people coming into the town may be relying on that obsolete data and sending their kids to private schools. And finally, Wood-Ridge has the smallest population of the towns you mentions. That sometimes means less programs and less resources.
Nothing against City Data (after all, I love this place), but I will eat my proverbial hat if Wood-Ridge has a higher median HHI than Leonia or Midland Park. And Paramus definitely has a higher median HHI that $104,000.
As to why Wood-Ridge schools don't rank higher, well... the town was never bad, but, it's primarily a no-frills, mostly blue-collar 'burb. Its sudden increase in affluence is a recent phenomenon. Some of the methodology used may be relying on data from the 2000 Census (the last set of data used to classify towns into District Factor Groups by the NJ Dept. of Ed) when Wood-Ridge was still a typical Southern Bergen County 'burb. In addition, all the new affluent people coming into the town may be relying on that obsolete data and sending their kids to private schools. And finally, Wood-Ridge has the smallest population of the towns you mentions. That sometimes means less programs and less resources.
So, those are my thoughts...
Same here. I think there has to be an issue with the data, there is no way Woodridge has a higher income than Rutherford, which is widely known to be the best south Bergen County town. Woodridge is more par with Carlstadt or Hasbrouck Heights, and I would suspect the school ranking is similar to those two towns. Maybe they are only considering the new condo development only?
Same here. I think there has to be an issue with the data, there is no way Woodridge has a higher income than Rutherford, which is widely known to be the best south Bergen County town. Woodridge is more par with Carlstadt or Hasbrouck Heights, and I would suspect the school ranking is similar to those two towns. Maybe they are only considering the new condo development only?
Maybe that is a possibility. Although I disagree with Wood-Ridge being on par with Hasbrouck Heights. Heights is a nicer town with way better schools, one of the best in southern Bergen County. Rutherford, Heights and Leonia are the overall best suburban southern Bergen towns for sure.
Maybe that is a possibility. Although I disagree with Wood-Ridge being on par with Hasbrouck Heights. Heights is a nicer town with way better schools, one of the best in southern Bergen County. Rutherford, Heights and Leonia are the overall best suburban southern Bergen towns for sure.
It's very strange. If you scroll down in city-data to the income map by "areas" of towns, you see that almost every area of Rutherford has a much higher average income than the areas of Wood-Ridge, so there must be a problem with their town calculation or raw data. Even looking at Wood-Ridge income map by itself, I'm very surprised that so many areas of the town are so high income.
I hope someone can get to the bottom of this, because many people including myself rely on city-data to look for stats when comparing towns. It never crossed my mind the info on it could be this off.
I am pretty shocked about Wood-Ridge data, it's a tiny town, but i like the neighborhood, it's mostly on a hill with a nice view of NYC, almost bought a house there.
Maybe that is a possibility. Although I disagree with Wood-Ridge being on par with Hasbrouck Heights. Heights is a nicer town with way better schools, one of the best in southern Bergen County. Rutherford, Heights and Leonia are the overall best suburban southern Bergen towns for sure.
May I ask where you're getting your data from? I looked at 2015-2016 elementary school performance (published by each school) and Wood-ridge actually outperforms HH in math and science. Wood-ridge intermediate is ranked a 9 in greatschools.org while HH is ranked 4. Both high schools are ranked a 5...
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