Wanaque Elementary School, Wanaque NJ

Original Research by School Decision on Wanaque Elementary School

Wanaque Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in a single building, which means a child who enters here can spend a full decade in one school before moving on to high school. That continuity is the school’s defining structure. Younger students and older students share a campus, so families get a single drop-off, a single set of school routines, and a staff that watches students grow over many years.

The school sits in a residential suburban borough that is essentially two neighborhoods, Wanaque and Haskell, each with its own post office. The main commercial strip runs along Ringwood Avenue, and the borough is car-dependent, with NJ Transit bus service providing connections to New York City. The Wanaque Reservoir, a major water supply facility, occupies a large portion of the borough’s land area, and the Highlands Water Protection Act constrains new development here. Population has been relatively stable in recent decades, with a modest recent decline, so the school’s enrollment is likely to remain steady rather than surge. Housing values in the area sit above the national median, and the local market shows signs of tight supply.

On state assessments, Wanaque Elementary’s results present a mixed profile that varies notably by grade and subject. In English language arts, the school shows real strength in several grades. The fourth-grade and sixth-grade cohorts posted proficiency rates that are solidly above the midpoint among New Jersey schools, and the eighth-grade result is particularly strong. In math, the picture is more uneven. Third-grade and sixth-grade math results are decent, but fourth-grade, fifth-grade, and eighth-grade math proficiency rates are meaningfully lower, each landing below the midpoint. On science assessments, which are administered in fifth and eighth grades, proficiency rates are low. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how science instruction is structured and whether these scores reflect a recent change. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, Wanaque Elementary’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Passaic County. That comparison set matters. Passaic County contains a wide range of communities, from high-poverty urban districts to affluent suburbs, so being in the top quarter within that county is a strong showing.

The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic minority and smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. About a share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is on the lower end for a New Jersey public school. The school has no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and data on whether it receives Title I funding was not available. Information on chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, staffing ratios, and course access was also absent from the data, so those dimensions of school life cannot be characterized here.

A child who attends Wanaque Elementary will move through a single school from pre-K through eighth grade, which can build strong peer and staff relationships over time. The academic picture is strongest in English language arts, where several grade levels perform well, and overall proficiency across subjects is competitive within the county. Math and science results are less consistent, and families with a student who struggles in those areas may want to ask about intervention and enrichment offerings. The community is suburban, settled, and car-oriented, with a stable population and an active housing market. For a family looking for a single elementary-through-middle school in a quiet commuter town with decent overall academics and a notably strong eighth-grade English result, this school fits that description.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 65% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 42% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 52% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 753%

School 53% · District 50% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 38% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 70% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 58% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 56% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 882%

School 82% · District 74% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 25% · ▲ 2 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 18% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

This schoolWanaque 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 4Lower-income69%Higher-income69%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income44%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income64%Higher-income67%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income75%Higher-income83%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income36%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income47%37 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income55%Higher-income58%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income47%20 pp gap