BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer
While Upper Freehold Regional School District officials are generally pleased with their performance on the annual state Department of Education report cards, there is always room for improvement, said Superinten-dent Robert Connelly.
"Our goal is to have a higher percentage of students in the advanced proficient range," Connelly said.
The district is also taking steps to improve scores on the SATs and to prepare both students and staff for the revamped and more difficult college boards in store next spring, said Assistant Superintendent Maybeth Conway.
"We are pleased with the performance we are getting from our students," Conway said. "At the same time, we feel the pressure to improve.
"We want to focus more energy on students scoring in advanced placement courses," she added. "Given our demographics, we should be looking at why those numbers are not higher than they are."
The district also plans to add more advanced placement courses in the near future, she said.
"We’re looking to expand the number of courses offered in the district and are encouraging students to take part in a more demanding curriculum," she said.
The district’s SAT scores have stayed fairly consistent over the last few years, slightly above the state averages, Conway said.
"We really would like to see those scores going up, with more of our students scoring at the higher end," she said.
Colleges are relying more heavily on the SATs as a significant academic identifier, more so than grades, she said.
Next year, students will be tested in three major areas, rather than just on verbal and math skills, she said.
The new sections will test pupils’ critical reading, writing and math skills. Students can score a total of 800 in each area, she said.
"The standards on the writing sample are very high," Conway said. "I think it’s wonderful," she said. "I do agree with them. If we are graduating stronger writers, that would be great."
The mathematics section of the new SATs will include testing skills in both Algebra I and Algebra II, as well as in geometry, she said.
"There’s going to be much more emphasis on math reasoning, practical applications and complex problem-solving," Con-way added.
"By focusing our energies on the new SATs, we will also end up with a higher level on the advanced proficient courses," the assistant superintendent said.
The district looks at three-year patterns with the testing, Superintendent Connelly said.
"We also like to see our student performance in comparison to like district-factor groupings, as opposed to the state results," he added. "We’re right on target there."