MANVILLE: Schools miss tests’ language, literacy goals

By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
   Two Manville schools missed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals on the state’s standardized tests, according to the New Jersey School Report Card, but administrators are optimistic a second assessment of the scores may change the schools’ grades.
   The New Jersey School Report Card, released Feb. 4, classified Alexander Batcho Intermediate School as a school in need of improvement for the second year, and Weston School as not reaching Adequate Yearly Progress goals for its first year.
   Both schools missed the testing goals in Language Arts and Literacy, with Alexander Batcho Intermediate School missing the state-set benchmarks for the third consecutive year.
   Under NCLB regulations, a school missing its AYP goals has a year to raise the percent of students deemed proficient to the state standard, or to raise the amount of partially-proficient students by 10 percent of the prior year’s total. Failing to reach either goal places a school in jeopardy of economic sanctions, state-mandated curriculum revisions, and other state actions.
   If ABIS is listed as a school in need of improvement next year, the district faces potential economic sanctions or state involvement.
   ”The district has been working hard in ABIS to improve the scores,” District Superintendent Donald Burkhardt said. “We’ve brought in more Basic Skills teachers and a new curriculum.”
   ABIS Principal James Brunn noted the school has also increased instructional time for Language Arts, given teachers additional training time, and offered after-school tutoring for students.
   ”We’ve added more opportunities to write,” Dr. Brunn said. “It may take some time and it may take additional effort on the part of the kids as well.”
   But, he noted, he wished the tests could give a “true picture of how hard the kids are working and how hard the teachers are working.”
   ABIS students missed the AYP goal by just 0.8 percent, with 65.2 percent of students scoring proficient.
   When the state first released the standardized test scores last year, Weston School was classified as failing after the Economically Disadvantaged subgroup missed its score target.
   The scores, however, did not include several Special Education students’ alternate proficiency tests — the alternate proficiency tests take longer to score than the standardized tests included in the preliminary score report. The school later received a passing designation, when the missing scores where included.
   Weston School’s third graders scored 62.5 percent proficient, and 16.3 percent advanced proficient, on the language arts and literacy, surpassing the state’s 75 percent proficiency goal. 
   However, several subgroups missed the proficiency goals, including Hispanic students, scoring 69.6 percent proficient; white students, scoring 72.1 percent proficient; and economically disadvantaged students, scoring 54.2 percent proficient.
   Teachers at the school began addressing language arts and literature during the summer, and created a reading challenge to increase the time students spent reading, Principal Don Frank said.
   Because of the school’s efforts, Mr. Frank said, a turn-around after a second score assessment would not be surprising. Dr. Burkhardt echoed Mr. Frank’s statement.
   ”It (the challenge) certainly has more of our kids reading,” Mr. Frank said. “But I don’t believe that (the NJ School report card). When they released the second cycle scores last year, we were passing (after initially being designated failing). I think that will happen again this year.”
   ”It shows that we’re really attacking language arts and literature from every angle,” third-grade teacher Rebecca Fosbre said. “We want the kids to know it’s really important and we’re working to teach that.”
   Often, the state Department of Education does not have the alternate proficiency exam scores when it compiles the standardized test data, spokesman Rich Vespucci said.
   The NCLB act requires the state to report the test scores by a certain deadline; typically, the alternate proficiency exams have not been scored when the data is submitted and the New Jersey School Report Cards are released. The most recent report cards do not include the alternate proficiency data, Mr. Vespucci said.