Report cards rank area high schools among state’s finest

Four schools’ SAT scores within top 11 in New Jersey.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Princeton Regional School District is paying less in teacher salaries, hiring less experienced teachers and spending $2,000 more in pupil costs than the state median.
   Teachers in the Montgomery Township School District are paid $9,000 less and have less than half the experience of the state median.
   In the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, classroom size at High School South went down slightly, but increased three students in High School North.
   And Princeton High School lost the bragging rights for having the highest average SAT scores in New Jersey. A 43-point drop put PHS in second place with 1,210, one point behind Millburn Senior High and 26 points ahead of third-place Montgomery High’s 1,184.
   West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South came in fourth with 1,175 and High School North came in 11th with 1,167.
   All of these facts can be found in the eighth annual New Jersey State School Report Card, issued Wednesday by the state Department of Education. The report cards, one for each school, contains a mix of facts about students, teachers, administrators and district finances — information provided by the school districts.
   The report card includes data about student mobility, dropout rates, the ratio of faculty to students, test scores and instructional time.
   It presents a snapshot of administration and faculty academic degrees, faculty attendance and administrator salaries.
   At PHS and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, faculty attendance has been dropping and is now among the lowest in Mercer County. The PHS rate has gone from 96.2 percent in 1997-1998 to 93 percent in 2001-2002. At High School North, it has gone from 97 percent in 1998-1999 to 93 percent.
   At Montgomery High, the faculty attendance rate is 96.9 percent. The state average is 95.6 percent.
   "The good news is it (faculty attendance) did go up a half a point from last year," said Jeffrey Graber, Princeton Regional’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. "It’s something we looked at administratively. Certainly the goal is to improve the faculty attendance rate and the student attendance rate, which across the district is quite good."
   The Princeton Regional School District is hiring younger and less experienced teachers to replace the baby boomers who are retiring. With pay at the low end of the scale, the median yearly salary has gone from $63,199 in 1997-1998 to $51,114 in 2001-2002. The experience level has gone from 16 years to nine years during the same time.
   "That’s going to be a trend across the state," Dr. Graber said. "In the next five years, there’s going to be a lot of retirements."
   In New Jersey, the median teacher salary is $50,147 and the years of experience is 12 years. Salaries in Montgomery have remained steady, always about $10,000 less than the state median. Last year, the median salary in Montgomery was $41,100. The median level of experience was five years.
   In West Windsor-Plainsboro, the average salary increased from $47,887 in 1997-1998 to $52,090 in 2001-2002 and the experience level rose from 11 to 12 years in the same time period.
   Advanced placement at PHS has increased from 58 percent of the student body in 2000-2001 to 67.5 percent in 2001-2002. Students who graduated from PHS last June were likely — 79 percent — to go on to a four-year college or university.
   In Montgomery, advanced placement declined from 40 percent in 2000-2001 to 33 percent in 2001-2002, but 89 percent of June’s graduates went on to a four-year college or university.
   The information for West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, which opened in 1997, was incomplete, but the report card showed that 33.4 percent of its students attended advanced placement classes and 86 percent of the students in its first graduation class went on to college.
   There was no current advanced placement data for High School South, but 86 percent of June graduates went on to college.
   Princeton Regional is spending $12,499 on each pupil this year, up $524 from 2001-2002.
   Montgomery spent $9,477 in 2002-2003, up $507 from the $8,970 spent in 2001-2002.
   West Windsor-Plainsboro is spending $11,770 on each pupil, an increase of $421 over the $11,369 it spent in 2001-2002.
   PHS has almost halved the ratio of students to computers, going from 9.5:1 in 1997-1998 to 4.7:1 in 2001-2002/
   Montgomery High is a computer heaven, with 2.9 students for each computer in 2001-2002. In 1997-1998, there were 3.2 students for each computer.
   West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South has gone from six students for each computer in 1999-2000 to 4.1 students for each computer.
   The ratio at High School North actually went up, from 2.4 students per computer in 1997-1998 to 4.1 students in 2001-2002.
   PHS held the highest state average SAT scores for three years before dropping to second, while Montgomery moved up from eighth to third. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South remained in fourth place and High School North came in 11th in its first year of reporting.
   "We missed tying for No. 1 by one point and that’s statistically insignificant," Dr. Graber said.
   "This is an accurate portrait of what exists," Dr. Graber said of the report card.
   "There were no surprises," said Gerri Hutner, public information officer in West Windsor-Plainsboro. "Both schools are quite balanced, quite equitable, which was one of the goals for the school district."
   She said the nine-point spread in SAT scores "was not statistically different."
   After downloading and analyzing the data, school administrators now must disseminate the information. Princeton Regional will make more than 3,200 copies of the report cards and send them home with students for their parents to see, Dr. Graber said.
   West Windsor-Plainsboro will analyze the data and send copies of the report cards to all parents, Ms. Hutner said.
   Montgomery Superintendent Stuart Schnur could not be reached for comment.