The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in English language arts. The lowest is 38% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Randall Carter Elementary School
Randall Carter Elementary School is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Wayne, New Jersey. It is one of the elementary schools in the Wayne Township Public School District. The school sits in a residential neighborhood near the central part of the township, not far from the retail corridors that define much of Wayne’s commercial life.
On state assessments, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile relative to other districts in Passaic County. That is a strong showing. Looking more closely at the grade-level results, third and fourth graders performed well in both math and English language arts, with a majority of students scoring at the proficient level or above. Fifth graders also did well in ELA, but math proficiency in fifth grade was notably lower, and science proficiency in fifth grade was the weakest area. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how math and science instruction shifts in the upper elementary years. The state testing data covers only the grades tested; the school does not serve high school, so there is no graduation rate to report.
Enrollment at Randall Carter is on the smaller side for a K-5 building. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and smaller numbers of Asian, two or more races, Black, and American Indian students. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is low, which places the school in a relatively affluent demographic context. Data on special education and English learner populations was not reported in the available source.
Wayne itself is a car-dependent suburban township about a short drive from Midtown Manhattan. It has no traditional walkable downtown; retail and services cluster around highway corridors, malls, and strip centers. Distinct lake communities such as Packanack Lake and Pines Lake, originally summer retreats, now function as year-round neighborhoods. The housing market reflects the area’s desirability: home values are high relative to national benchmarks, and the market has been active with a noticeable uptick in listings. Rents are also elevated. The township’s population has been essentially flat in recent years, with development taking the form of commercial renovation and adaptive reuse rather than large-scale new housing. Major employers include Valley Bank’s corporate headquarters, William Paterson University, and a medical device manufacturer occupying a former corporate campus.
The district recently expanded full-day preschool, moving from a small number of full-day students to a much larger enrollment in just a couple of years, while reducing half-day options. That shift may matter to families with younger children looking ahead to kindergarten. For Randall Carter, which starts at kindergarten, the change signals a broader district investment in early childhood education.
Because the school serves only elementary grades, several measures common in secondary school profiles are absent here. There is no college readiness data, no career pathway offerings, and no graduation rate. The available data paints a picture of a suburban elementary school with strong early-grade academics, a comfortable economic profile among its families, and a few areas of softer performance in the upper grades that families may want to explore. The school’s setting in Wayne offers the amenities of a mature suburban hub with convenient access to New York City, but also the trade-offs of car-dependent living and a high-cost housing market.
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