South test scores improving

South Hunterdon students have improved in math and language arts through "quick interventions" and other strategies.

By: Linda Seida
   WEST AMWELL — Annual test results show more students in the South Hunterdon Regional School District have improved their skills in math and language arts.
   "We’ve spent only a year putting in quick interventions, and already we’ve seen some movement" in students’ scores from merely proficient to advanced proficient, said Superintendent Lisa Brady, who has just completed her first year with at South Hunterdon. "It’s systemic things that will have a big payoff."
   Ms. Brady said the district’s teachers have been "wonderfully receptive" to professional development and newer strategies aimed at improving students’ proficiency.
   "We are moving toward the goals that we set," she said. "One of our biggest goals was to move more students from the proficient range to the advanced proficient range on standardized tests."
   In the past, most students passed the tests but not with the scores "needed to be really successful," Ms. Brady said.
   Now improvement is occurring in several areas.
   In the High School Proficiency Assessment test, the percentage of students who scored in the advanced proficient range in language arts increased from 15.8 percent to 34.9 percent. In math, the percentage increased from 23.2 percent to 37.2 percent.
   In the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment test, the percentage of students in the advanced proficient range increased from 2.4 percent to 12.6 percent in the language arts section. In math, the percentage of students in the advanced proficient range increased from 19 percent to 25 percent.
   In science, however, the percentage of students in the advanced proficient range decreased from 31 percent to 30 percent.
   Ms. Brady said the test scores are a benchmark, and said she believes the district will continue to advance more students into the advanced proficient range in the future.