The top reported proficiency rate is 79% in Math. The lowest is 68% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Washington Avenue School
Washington Avenue School is one of several elementary schools within the School District of the Chathams, a regional district serving both Chatham Borough and Chatham Township. The school itself serves only the early elementary grades, from kindergarten through third grade. Chatham is a high-income, primarily residential commuter town for New York City, located in Morris County. Both the borough and the township are often referred to together as "The Chathams," and they share a school district, library, municipal court, and other services. The area is densely settled with a traditional downtown along Main Street, and Chatham's railroad station provides direct commuter rail access to Manhattan. Housing values are very high, and the local real estate market is extremely tight, with homes selling quickly. For a family considering this school, the most immediate thing to understand is that a major grade reconfiguration takes effect in the 2025–26 school year, shifting Washington Avenue from a K–3 school to a K–2 school. This means that after the change, students will attend Washington Avenue School for kindergarten through second grade and then move to Lafayette Avenue School for third and fourth grades before entering Chatham Middle School in fifth grade. This is a structural change driven by enrollment and class-size considerations, and it directly affects which building a child will be in and at what grade they will transition.
Washington Avenue School is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school, and it does not receive Title I funding. The student body is small for a primary school serving its grade band, and the student population is not economically diverse. A very small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Racially and ethnically, the majority of students are white, with a meaningful Asian population and smaller shares of Hispanic students and students who identify as two or more races. Data on the share of students with disabilities or who are English learners was not available in the school's reporting.
State testing data is available for third grade, the only tested grade at this school. On the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, Washington Avenue's third graders posted a proficiency rate in math that places well above the midpoint among schools in Morris County. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades also lands in the top quartile relative to other districts in the county. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was also strong, though noticeably lower than the math result. A parent may want to ask the school for more detail about how literacy instruction is structured, particularly since the building will soon serve only K–2, which are foundational reading years.
Because Washington Avenue School serves only early elementary grades, it has no graduation rate, no chronic absenteeism data for older students, and no high school course access information to report. The school's disciplinary, attendance, and staffing data were also not available in the data provided.
Looking ahead, the School District of the Chathams is implementing the grade reconfiguration that will change Washington Avenue's grade span. A parent enrolling a child for kindergarten or first grade should confirm which campus their child would attend for each of the early elementary years under the new plan. The community context supports the school's performance. Chatham is a very high-wealth area with intensely competitive housing, and the school district draws from that same high-resource base. For a family already living in the district or moving in, Washington Avenue School offers a small, academically strong setting for the earliest grades within a well-regarded district, though the structural transition in the coming year is something to account for when planning a child's full elementary path.
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