Glen Ridge, NJ Schools - As good as they say? (Westfield: homes, public schools)

[bluetobe]

Looking for information on the Glen Ridge school system. It is rated very well, but I wanted to find out from others in the community, or parents, or those who work in education that might be able to speak to the Glen Ridge school system. Is it as good as they say it is?

[minymom]

Yes, if I could bump this thread up, as I am wondering the same thing. I don't mean to intrude on the OP, just noticed that we are looking to into similar areas. DH and I are looking into homes in Glen Ridge/Maplewood areas. While GR has a higher "ranking" (I tend to believe that the ranking systems have to be thoroughly picked through before just taking as is), my agent was telling me that the curriculum at Columbia was very diverse and that they offered more AP classes there than at Glen Ridge High. True? Something in part b/c of the higher number of students at Columbia.

[mumra]

does your agent service glen ridge or leans towards maplewood? Check out the agenst previous sales. NJ has a curriculum standard that each school is required to follow, do you mean the electives are more diverse. and what does "diverse curriculum" mean anyway?

[Mattie]

I have a good friend who had two children graduate from the Glen Ridge school system, as did she and her spouse. These are very intelligent people, who value education highly. I would say Glen Ridge deserves it's reputation for having excellent public schools.

[minymom]

In response to the OP on "diverse". Yes ,I did notice that Columbia High had a much larger offering of electives, and also AP courses. I looked closely at the high school cirriculums for GR, MW, Summit, Westfield, and Milburn. Columbia did have the greater number of electives and AP course offerings among them. I do think that is very outstanding that students do have those options available to them at a public high school level. If there was any wonder, it was how a student could take advantage of all those classes in the short duration of high school. Among many of their electives and AP courses, I did not see those types of classes till I got to college, ( ie, drafting, graphic art courses, specific history courses, accounting, finance, computer science, CAD, etc..)