The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cecil S. Collins Elementary
Cecil S. Collins Elementary serves kindergarten through second grade in Barnegat Township, a growing residential community in Ocean County. Because the school covers only the earliest primary grades, many of the metrics that families commonly use to judge a school do not apply here. There is no graduation rate, no middle or high school course offerings, and no chronic absenteeism data that can be meaningfully compared. The school is what it is: an entry point for the district's youngest students, and the available information reflects that narrow grade band.
Barnegat Township is primarily a car-dependent suburban area. The township has a small historic district near Barnegat Bay with shops and restaurants, a public dock, and a boardwalk, but the bulk of the housing is in newer suburban subdivisions connected by the Garden State Parkway, US Route 9, and NJ Route 72. The community has seen sustained population growth, and the municipal government describes the area as still viable for commercial and residential development. The school district operates six separate school buildings spread across the township's large land area, rather than a single campus, so the location of Collins Elementary at 570 Barnegat Boulevard North is one of several neighborhood-based attendance zones.
The student body is sizable for a school serving only three grade levels. The enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across kindergarten, first, and second grade. The demographics show a student population that is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic share and Black and multiracial groups each representing a smaller portion. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a standard indicator of lower household income. The school's status as a regular public school means there is no charter or magnet affiliation, and Title I status was not reported in the available data.
State assessment results are available from the 2018-19 school year, which is the most recent testing data on record. Because the school serves only through second grade, only third, fourth, and fifth graders were tested under the state's standard assessment schedule, and those students belong to the school in name only because they have moved on to other buildings in the district. The proficiency rates across subjects and grade levels show a mixed picture. In English language arts, performance was above the midpoint of what a parent would expect for a New Jersey public school in the grade levels tested, with the highest rate in fourth grade and the lowest in fifth. In math, the range was wider, with third grade showing a much higher proficiency rate than fourth or fifth. Science results, tested only in fifth grade, were lower. These figures place the school's overall proficiency, averaged across tested subjects and grades, in the top quartile relative to other districts in Ocean County. A parent should keep in mind that these are results from several years ago, predating the pandemic, and that they reflect students who were no longer attending this building when they took the tests.
The school's comparison set is the district-level performance relative to other districts in Ocean County, because the data is aggregated across grade levels and then assigned to the school's home district for placement. Within that frame, Collins Elementary's combined proficiency sits comfortably above the middle of the county's districts. This is a notable strength for a school that serves only the youngest grades, where academic benchmarking is inherently limited.
No information was available about the school's staffing ratios, discipline rates, or attendance patterns, all of which are typically reported for K-12 schools but may not be collected at the same level for schools with this narrow grade span. There is also no data on the specific program offerings, special education population, or English learner population at this school. A parent who wants to know about class sizes, teacher qualifications, or how the school supports students with disabilities would need to ask the district directly.
For families choosing a home in Barnegat, this school is the starting point for their child's education. The district feeds from Collins into separate elementary schools for third and fourth grade, then fifth and sixth, then a middle school, and finally Barnegat High School. The housing market in the area shows typical home values that are above the national median, and the rental market is also above the national average, reflecting the broader New Jersey coastal region. The school itself is a standard early elementary building in a growing suburban district, with academic results that were solid in the most recent available data.
See more original research from School Decision →