EDITORIAL: Report cards show schools’ improvement

Community involvement can help report card scores to rise further

   South Brunswick students achieve at rates that are better than the state average, but slightly below their peers in similar school districts.
   That assessment, however, is just one element of the report cards issued by the state for each school in New Jersey. The report cards also indicated that district schools showed improvement during the 2005-2006 school year, when compared with 2004-2005. The percentage of students not meeting state standards dropped while more students attained what the state deems an "advanced" level of proficiency.
   For some parents and community members, the numbers are an indication that the district is doing its job, providing a top-tier education to the district’s 8,800 students. For others, however, the numbers can be used to show that the district can do more — that South Brunswick students should be topping their peers in other schools with a similar socio-economic makeup.
   And there’s the rub: Both sides in this debate can point to the figures in the state report cards to prove their point. That’s why we always have remained a bit skeptical of these annual reports.
   The report cards issued by the state Department of Education (and available on the department’s Web site at http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc06/menu/23-4860.html), too often simplify what happens within each school building, boiling down the difficult process of education into a series of abstract numbers.
   Schools, of course, are not numbers, nor are students.
   The report cards, issued last week, do contain a wealth of information including average class size (slightly above the state average), the number of computers per student and access to the Internet (better than the state average), average teacher salary and experience (below the state average) and how much the district is spending per student (about 8.5 percent below the state average).
   The state created the report cards to help increase accountability. Parents and taxpayers in failing districts could then force change, while those in successful districts could build on their successes. Theoretically, they are modeled on the quarterly grades issued to students and sent home to parents; in reality, however, they are little more than statistical abstracts with little connection to what actually happens in the classroom.
   Classroom success — and failure — is caused by an array of factors, some of which cannot being measured statistically while others are outside the framework of the state’s review.
   That’s not to rule out the report cards entirely. Some of the information, if used judiciously, can place local schools within a larger context.
   Even then, a caveat is necessary: The report card is only a "snapshot" of the district, one we should be careful to avoid reading too much into.
   In the end, the only sure-fire way to determine how the district’s schools are doing is for parents to be involved in their children’s education. Parents need to talk to their kids about school, find out what they are learning and doing in the classroom every day. And we would encourage the community at large to get involved with the PTOs and PTAs and attend school board meetings.
   The more involved the community is, the more control it can have over what happens in South Brunswick schools.