BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
For Schools Superintendent Joseph M. Ferraina, the performance of students on the Long Branch High School Proficiency Assessment test is not his first concern.
The test results, part of the recently released school district report cards, show the average district student’s scores are below the averages statewide, but not very different from those of students from communities with similar economic profiles.
Among the factors affecting the test scores is a student body in which slightly more than 30 percent have either Spanish or Portuguese as a first language.
The results of the HSPA test showed that about 60 percent of students within the district tested in the proficient and advanced proficient in language and 44 percent scored in mathematics.
The state averages showed language scores at 80 percent and math scores at 66 percent.
"We never had a student that did not graduate because they did not meet the high school proficiency assessment," Ferraina said. "This year they did the results differently."
The percentages for this assessment are normally a combined score of testing administered in November and then again in March and April. These results are only from the scores of the first assessment.
Similar to the district HSPA performance, the SAT results for the district were also below the state average, with city students’ combined scores averaging 900, compared to the state average of 1,018.
"Some students score high, some low; it is just an average," Ferraina said. "Some areas do not have a lot of students taking the test. We encourage a lot of students to take it."
While test results continue to lag behind the state average, the city’s high school has reduced its dropout and suspension rates over the past three years, closing the gap with the state’s averages.
In the 2001-02 school year, the school’s dropout rate was at 4 percent; last year it dropped to 1.8 percent, on target with the state average of 1.9 percent.
School suspensions also have decreased considerably, falling to 8.8 percent in the 2002-03 school year, well below the state average of 14.2 percent.
Ferraina said the kids are staying in school because the school keeps on changing.
"We continue to provide different programs to keep children in school and have them meet the standards," Ferraina said. "We have a before- and after-school program for extra help. We have added personnel to help put more hands around the problem."
He said they are enforcing discipline and referring many students to in-school detentions and/or suspensions, rather than having them miss school.
"I want to see students graduate and become more productive citizens," Ferraina said.
He said suspensions have also decreased because as soon as there is a problem, officials address it.
"I worry about having the right amount of administrative support," Ferraina said. "I am concerned that we provide enough hands and supervision for our students."
"I think the numbers are dropping because more people are working with the students," Ferraina said.
That increase in administration shows itself in the district’s student/administrator ratio. In the district there is one administrator for every 142.4 students, compared to the state average of one for every 158.2.
"We need to have the right number to administer needs," Ferraina said. "As far as I am concerned, I do not see this number as a problem.
"We have to provide a lot of programs other schools do not have to because we are an Abbot district," Ferraina said. "These are the kinds of things done to reduce the gaps in the other averages."