LONG BRANCH – A summer program teaching test-taking skills to Long Branch High School students was so successful the lessons have been incorporated into everyday curriculum.
Long Branch Superintendent of Schools Joseph M. Ferraina charged city educators last spring with creating a summer program to meet the needs of high school seniors who were in danger of not graduating.
The “Summer Scholars” program was implemented in July and proved to be a successful tool for students, a school official said.
“Mr. Ferraina said too many high school students were failing the HSPA [High School Proficiency Assessment] test,” Long Branch School District Administrator Michael Salvatore said last week.
“He wanted to see a program that would give the students all the skills they need to past the test and their dayto day tests,” he said.
In order to graduate from high school, students are required to pass the state mandated HSPA test, which is administered in the spring of junior year.
If students fail the test, it is offered again in the fall and spring of senior year.
“When a student fails the test junior year, they have to drop an elective class their senior year in order to take a [HSPA] review course,” Salvatore said. “Mr. Ferraina said he thought it was important for seniors to take elective classes and be offered another way.”
In the 2006-2007 school year, 50 percent of Long Branch high school juniors failed the mathematics portion of the HSPA test and another 24 percent of students failed the language arts portion, according to Salvatore.
Long Branch educators developed a six-week seminar designed to target seniors who were in danger of not fully meeting all graduation requirements.
The 20-hour program ran from July 5 through Aug. 15 and was offered at three times during the day for four days a week, Salvatore explained, adding that five teachers at the high school taught the classes for the program
“We had classes at 8 a.m., 9 a.m. and again at 5:30 p.m. for the kids who had to work during the summer,” Salvatore said. “A lot of the kids were just blown away,” Salvatore said.
“After the classes they said things like ‘This is common sense; how did I not know that?’
“It really put motivation in them,” he added.
As part of the program, Ferraina had reached out to the state commissioner of education and received permission to administer the HSPA test at the end of the program.
Of the 55 students who attended the summer program, 35 passed the HSPA after completing course.
“It is pretty amazing,” said Salvatore. “These kids had failed the test before and with six weeks of intense instruction they were able to pass.”
The classes concentrated on students and teachers working side by side to not only cover the necessary content of mathematic and English, but to also develop test-taking strategies, according to Salvatore.
“It is very intense,” Salvatore said. “It focused on strategy and it wasn’t just a focus on the content.
“It wasn’t that these students didn’t know the math, it was that when they saw it on a test, they did not know how to answer it.”
The class also instructed the students on how to analyze tests, using the HSPA test as an example.
The students learned how many points were assigned to each question on the test, how many questions they needed to answer correctly in order to pass and which questions needed additional focus, according to Salvatore.
“We interviewed the kids [who passed] after they got their results and it was so great to hear what they had to say,” Salvatore said. “One kid told us he believes in himself now, and as an educator, after hearing that, you know that you are doing the right thing.”
Ferraina called the program “a rewarding experience.”
He added, “Did you look at the faces of the students? This is one of my favorite moments as an educator.
“We were able to provide them with skills and strategies they need to be successful beyond high school.
“It shows that changing a few things here and there really makes a big difference,” he said.
Although the program was a success, Salvatore said the district’s hope is that it will not be needed anymore.
“We have taken this program and incorporated it into everyday classes at the high school,” Salvatore said. “We find that kids, who even passed the test, need the strategies taught during the programs to apply in everyday testing.
“We have taken the elements and infused them into the classroom,” he said. “We were alarmed at the number of kids that failed the test.
“This is going to help those kids.”