Littleton Elementary School, Morris Plains NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Littleton Elementary School

Littleton Elementary School, located in Morris Plains, serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade and is part of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township School District. The school occupies a residential corner of a borough that functions largely as a bedroom community for New York City commuters, with a historic NJ Transit train station providing direct rail access. Corporate campuses from Pfizer and Honeywell are major local employers, and a planned redevelopment of a large Pfizer property into housing and retail signals continued growth. Morris Plains itself is a small, car-oriented suburban borough, and while the school is in Morris Plains, the district it belongs to covers the larger Parsippany-Troy Hills area.

The school’s student body is relatively diverse, with the two largest groups being students who identify as Asian and those who identify as White, each making up a sizable share of enrollment. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure that is low compared to many schools. The school serves a pre-K-to-5 grade band, so there is no high school graduation rate to report, and the data did not include information on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner classifications.

On state assessments, Littleton’s students performed well in both math and English language arts across the tested grades. In third grade, the large majority of students scored at or above the proficient level on the math assessment, and the results in fourth grade were similarly strong. Fifth-grade math proficiency, while lower than the earlier grades, was still at a level where most students were meeting the bar. In English language arts, third and fourth graders showed strong proficiency, with the fourth-grade results particularly high. Fifth-grade ELA proficiency was again a step below the earlier grades but remained at a level where a solid majority of students were proficient. Science results for fifth graders were lower, with roughly three out of five students reaching proficiency. The overall picture, when all tested subjects and grades are combined, placed Littleton’s academic performance in the top quartile when compared with other schools across districts in Morris County.

A parent considering Littleton will find a school that performs well on state tests, particularly in the early elementary years, and serves a student population with a relatively low rate of economic disadvantage. The school’s setting is suburban and residential, and it feeds into a larger district that has been focused on facility upgrades and has had ongoing community conversations about expanding kindergarten offerings. The data did not include information about specific programs, course access beyond the standard elementary curriculum, or staffing details like class sizes. For a family evaluating the school, the strong academic results for the tested grades are a clear strength, while the science scores and the dip in fifth-grade proficiency are areas a parent may want to ask the school about directly.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 385%

School 85% · District 75% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 71% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 73% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 371%

School 71% · District 62% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 76% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 71% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 54% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

This schoolParsippany-Troy Hills Township School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income79%52 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income18%Higher-income76%58 pp gap