James Caldwell High School
WEST CALDWELL · NJ · Caldwell-West School District · Public
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Essex County West Caldwell Tech → Essex Valley School → Mount Saint Dominic Academy → New Beginnings → Verona High School → West Essex High School → West Orange High School → Essex Campus Academy →📋 At a glance
- 📚 18 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 3 calculus classes · 3 physics · 15 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How James Caldwell High School compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 18 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyNJ students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+12 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Essex County West Caldwell Tech, Essex Valley School, Mount Saint Dominic Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
73th percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
90th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -3.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 749 students:
≈ 134 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $23,661 per student in district revenue, the 134 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $3,170,574/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex County West Caldwell Tech West Caldwell |
Public | 0.8 | 353 | +60.5% |
| Essex Valley School West Caldwell |
Private | 1.2 | 67 | -19.3% |
| Mount Saint Dominic Academy Caldwell |
Private | 1.3 | 229 | -20.8% |
| New Beginnings Fairfield |
Private | 2.1 | 154 | -0.6% |
| Verona High School VERONA |
Public | 2.5 | 593 | -7.6% |
| West Essex High School NORTH CALDWELL |
Public | 2.6 | 1,061 | +1.5% |
| West Orange High School WEST ORANGE |
Public | 3.0 | 2,106 | +3.2% |
| Essex Campus Academy FAIRFIELD |
Public | 3.3 | 37 | — |