U.S. News & World Report has released its ranking of New Jersey’s best middle schools, weighing data from 59,128 schools around the country.
The 2025 list ranked School No. 28 in Paterson as the best middle school in the state. Infinity Institute in Jersey City, a public school that requires students to apply for admission, was ranked second. Upper School, a public school in Englewood Cliffs, ranked third. (See the top 25 New Jersey middle schools below.)
School No. 28, which serves 484 students in pre-K through 8th grade, also ranks as New Jersey’s best elementary school on this year’s list from U.S. News. When schools cover such a wide grade span, U.S. News based its rankings on tests taken in third through fifth grades for the elementary school rankings and sixth through eighth grades for middle schools.