All area schools score well in state tests.
By: Jeff Milgram
At the beginning of the month, when the talk of the town centered around the fact that Princeton High School had dropped to second place in the state for SAT scores, one point behind Millburn High, some very interesting facts were lost in the shuffle.
When the 2001-2002 New Jersey School Reports Cards were released, it was clear that that the Princeton Charter School had some very impressive scores in the fourth- and eighth-grade assessment tests.
But then, so did other schools in this area.
"We all know that educational results are tied in to demographics," said James Dineen, a charter school trustee who was a program director at Educational Testing Service. "And we all have the same demographics."
In the eighth-grade standardized assessment, the Princeton Charter School had the highest percentage of students 70 percent ranked "advanced proficient" in science among the state’s 340 middle schools, the third highest percentage in mathematics and the eighth highest in language arts.
But the John Witherspoon Middle School also did well; its 50 percent rate placed it in 28th place. The two West Windsor-Plainsboro middle schools placed in the top 100; Thomas R. Grover, with its 42.9 percent, placed 64th and Community, with 41.9, placed 70th.
Montgomery Middle School, with 41.8 percent, followed at 71st.
In math, the Princeton Charter School placed third, with 65 percent, while John Witherspoon placed fourth, with 57.6.
Grover was in 28th place with 43.4 percent, followed immediately by Community, with 42.7 percent.
Montgomery Middle School placed 55th, with 36.2 percent.
In language arts, 42 percent of the charter school’s eighth-graders were advanced proficient. Community placed 13th, with 34.6 percent; Grover was 20th, with 31.5 percent; Witherspoon 24th, with 30 percent; and Montgomery Middle School 51st, with 24 percent.
In the elementary level, the charter school placed third in math, with 81.8 percent proficient; Riverside placed 31st, with 68.2 percent; West Windsor-Plainsboro’s Upper Elementary School was 47th, with 64.2 percent; Littlebrook placed 67th, with 60.7 percent. Montgomery Township’s Orchard Hill Elementary School was 71st with 60.4 percent; and Johnson Park School was 84th with 59.1 percent.
If there was one problem area for area schools, it was the fourth-grade language arts test, where the charter school came in at 19th place, with 31.8 percent proficiency, and Johnson Park coming in at the 76th spot, with 21.2 percent.
The Princeton Charter School opened in 1997 after several years of bitter debates between parents they believed their children were not getting a quality education and teachers, district officials and school board members.
The parents, who felt teachers had too much say in developing the district’s educational programs, applied for a charter from the state, raised money and bought a property on Ewing Street. The school follows a rigorous curriculum emphasizing basic skills.
The charter school is a public school funded by the Princeton Regional School District. But the district has no say in setting up its curriculum. The district shares data with the charter school, Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn said, but that is where the cooperation ends.
"We operate as two separate entities," she said.
The district will closely review the data from the latest report card, said Jeffrey Graber, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
The charter school, which expects to have 270 students from kindergarten through eighth grade in the next school year, draws its student body through a lottery, not through a selective process.
"We like to believe we are a rigorous school with good teachers and a rigorous, well-defined curriculum," said Mark Schlawin, a science teacher who compiled the data from the school report card.
Mr. Schlawin noted that the proficiency tests are not the only criteria for measuring a school’s performance. He also acknowledged that demographics play an important role.
"Cranbury, (West) Windsor, Princeton and Montgomery are all drawing from the same high demographics," he said.
Princeton Regional and the charter school use different tests, which makes comparisons difficult, and using the proficiency tests was the only way to compare the schools.
"These are the only comparative tests results we have," Mr. Dineen said.
Critics say charter schools have an advantage because of small class size. The data from the state bear this out. Princeton Charter School classes are about half the size of public school classes.
Critics also contend charter school parents are more active in their children’s education than public school parents.
The state Department of Education issues the school report cards annually, using data from the schools. The state believes the report cards gives a snapshot of each school.

