District pleased with the results
By: Matt Kirdahy
The Cranbury school district has once again received good grades from the state.
The 2001-2002 State School Report Cards, released annually by the state Department of Education as a way to provide more information to the public about schools, shows that Cranbury School students scored above the state average in nearly every category.
Chief School Administrator Carol Malouf said with the support of the community, Board of Education and the school’s faculty, the district has continued to provide a well-rounded education to all students.
"Students have an opportunity to be involved in various extracurricular activities, including the performing arts, athletics, yearbook, school newspaper and student council," said Ms. Malouf. "I am most impressed not only with their academic work, but also of the students’ ability to take advantage of all other opportunities available to allow them to grown physically, socially and academically. We teach to the day, not to the test."
Categories for the 2001-02 school year included student attendance rate, class size, faculty attendance rate and student to computer ratio.
The report card also showed that Cranbury students’ overall performance on the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment and the Elementary School Proficiency Assessment were well above the state average.
There were 65 percent of eighth-graders that were proficient in the language arts portion of the GEPA, the remainder that were partially proficient has yet to be calculated by the state.
Statewide, 17.3 percent of eighth-graders were partially proficient in the language arts portion of the GEPA, 33.3 percent were partially proficient in math and 17.7 percent were partially proficient in science.
In the ESPAs, given to fourth-graders, 3.4 percent of general education students in Cranbury were only partially proficient in math, 22.4 percent were proficient and 74.1 percent were advanced proficient.
In the language arts category, 86.2 percent of the students were proficient and 13.8 percent were advanced proficient. There were no students partially proficient in that category.
No proficiency numbers were gathered for the science portion of the test because it was not administered.
Throughout the state, 25.8 percent of general education fourth-graders were partially proficient in math, while 43.4 percent were proficient and 30.8 advanced proficient in that subject. In language arts, 13.7 percent of students statewide were partially proficient, 79.2 percent were proficient and 7.1 percent were advanced proficient.
The report card also showed that 100 percent of the classrooms in the Cranbury School are wired for Internet access, called Internet connectivity on the report cards, compared to the state average of 97 percent.
The Cranbury School also has a student to computer ratio of 2.7 to 1, nearly double the state average of 4.7 students to one computer.
Ms. Malouf said ratio is a result of the school’s five-year technology plan. She called the computers "tools to enhance instruction."
The Cranbury School also compared favorably to the state average in attendance, with 95.6 percent of students present daily at school, 0.6 percent higher than the state average.
The average class size was 20.8 students per class, 0.4 percent above the state average, which has decreased 0.4 percent in the last year.
There was a student to faculty ratio of 10.2 to 1 that is 2.1 percent below the state average and a 96.1 percent faculty attendance rate, 0.3 percent below the state average.
In addition, 2.1 percent of students were suspended at Cranbury School, whereas 4.6 percent of students were suspended throughout the state. Last year, no students were suspended.
"We have had fewer suspensions over the years," Ms. Malouf said. "We try to work on that using a conflict-resolution approach to solve problems and help the students grow."
Teachers at the Cranbury School also were paid well last year, according to the report card.
The median salary for teachers in the district increased $2,560 to $53,560, higher than the state median of $45,156. Teachers in Cranbury also have had three extra years of experience compared to the state’s 12 years.
In addition, Cranbury administrators are earning a higher wage with a $96,720 median salary, $13,720 more than the state median of $83,000.
The gap between the cost of educating a student in Cranbury as opposed to the state average has widened.
The state average is now $8,321, $2,023 less than the Cranbury average of $10,344. Last year the district cost per pupil was $10,047 while the statewide average was at $7,907.

