Most schools pass NCLB benchmarks

Stephanie Prokop Staff Writer
   Four of 19 schools in the northern Burlington County area did not meet the state Department of Education’s adequate yearly progress standards for the 2006-2007 school year, according to a DOE report issued Aug. 16.
   Approximately 75 percent of the state’s 2,215 schools have met the benchmarks set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. In many schools, such as the Northern Burlington Regional Middle School, a passing score was missed by just one point, with 40 out of the 41 indicators met.
   Principal Eric Barnett said that even though some of the students with disabilities did not meet the passing scores for the math and language arts needed in the special education department, “We understand the unique challenge of that particular population.”
   ”The students have definitely been working up to their potential, and they’ve been making outstanding progress,” he said. “They’ve assimilated well into the population, even those with the most severe needs.”
   He said one objective for the new school year includes bolstering those scores with a program titled Read 180, which focuses all students to meet higher standards on tests in the future. The NCLB Act, in part, seeks 100 percent proficiency for students in standardized tests. The state DOE annually releases its adequate yearly progress (AYP) data detailing the strides made by students in New Jersey.
   In order to pass the AYP, students must meet both the proficiency targets with a 95 percent participation rate in math and language arts assessments for each grade level at a given school.
   According to the state DOE Web site, schools that are eligible for Title I funds and miss the AYP standard in any one of the 40 indicators for any grade after having achieved AYP in prior years, are placed on early warning list.
   Early warning schools do not receive any NCLB sanctions.
   After that, the school would be placed on a list of schools in need of improvement. The school would then have to provide tutoring or offer parents a choice if they wanted to send their children to another school within the district that was not on that list.
   Mr. Barrnett said this was the first time to his knowledge that the school has been on the list, and that “it will trigger our efforts for this school year all the more.”
   MacFarland Intermediate School, in the Bordentown Regional School District also met 40 out of the 41 AYP indicators. In that school, students with disabilities did not make the AYP benchmark target for language arts.
   Bordentown Regional Middle School had similar results to MacFarland, with a “no” for the AYP benchmark target in math.
   In Florence Township School District, Florence Middle School met 38 out of the 41 necessary criteria to pass the AYP, with students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students not reaching the benchmark target in language arts and math subject areas.
   Dr. James Sarruda, the Superintendent for the Northern Burlington School District, said that the special needs program at Northern Burlington Regional High School is one of its “pockets of greatness” but the AYP does remind them to work a little harder to tweak the program to make it even better.
   He also added that special needs students have to take the same tests as those students who aren’t identified as having special needs, so the task is often a difficult one for those who learn at a different pace.
   ”We’re going to do the best we can, and keep an eye out to improve that category,” he added.
   School officials in Bordentown and Florence districts could not be reached for comment before the Register-News’ deadline Wednesday. The Board Office in Florence was closed for the week of Aug. 20, and officials in Bordentown Township were unavailable until Sept. 4.
   The NCLB requirements will continue to be even more stringent as each year passes, with a projection of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.