By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
JAMESBURG — School administrators say they’re looking for areas of improvement after receiving the results from state School Report Cards.
”The scores are useful when you use them to desegregate the data, looking for areas of strength and weakness and have teachers use that in their instruction in the classroom,” said Gail Verona, Jamesburg School District superintendent. “We’re using data to differentiate the instruction.”
Within the district, some areas saw improvement, while others saw a drop in test scores.
Dr. Verona said one contributing factor to lower test scores is that the standards have recently been changed.
”They changed the proficiency levels,” she said. “In order for students to be proficient the bar has been raised. It’s like a moving target.”
School officials say they have several new initiatives to promote overall improvement.
Dr. Verona said some major areas educators plan to concentrate on is improving overall language arts literacy, as well as sixth-graders test scores.
New initiatives include several after-school programs, a star program, which pairs students and teachers in the classroom, a reading coach who observes and sets the model for good practice in language arts, as well as a study island, which is a Web-based program that addresses students’ specific needs.
Teachers are also preparing students for the test taking experiences, borrowing what they learn from sample tests and helping their classes develop time-management skills, Dr. Verona said.
As for the test scores, improvement came from third-graders in the language arts literacy test, 19.7 percent of whom scored partially proficient compared to last years 22 percent. Additionally, 80.3 percent scored proficient, an increase of 5.7 percent from last year, while no students scored advanced, a drop from the previous year’s 3.4 percent.
School officials also saw improvement in some of the third-graders mathematics scores, which increased in the advanced area from last year’s 18.6 percent to this year’s 27.9 percent and saw a drop in the partial proficiency testing, from last year’s 16.9 percent to this year’s 13.1 percent. Proficient scores for these third-graders decreased from 64.4 percent to 59 percent this year.
In language arts literacy testing, fourth-graders saw an increase in the number of students who tested partially proficient, up from 16.4 percent to 22 percent, and a decrease in students testing advanced, down from 45.2 percent last year to 37.7 percent this year. Fourth-graders improved in the proficient testing, up from 41.1 percent to 44.3 percent.
In science, district fourth-graders improved in their advanced testing with 44.3 percent this year compared to last year’s 42.5 percent. However, students who tested proficient dropped from 45.2 percent last year to 42.6 percent this year and those who tested partially proficient increased from last year’s 12.3 percent to this year’s 13.1 percent. Due to recent changes made to the fifth through eighth grade tests, this year’s scores could not be compared to previous years. But overall, these test scores faired worse than the state averages.
In language arts literacy, 1.4 percent of the district’s fifth grade students tested advanced compared to the state’s average of 4.1 percent, and 40.8 percent tested partially proficient compared to the state average of 40 percent. However, 57.7 percent of Jamesburg fifth-graders tested proficient compared to the state’s average of 55.9 percent.
In mathematics, 29.6 percent of the district’s fifth-graders tested advanced compared to the state average of 27.9 percent. In proficient testing, district students scored 45.1 percent compared to the state average of 48.7 percent and in partial testing the state average was 23.4 percent compared to Jamesburg’s 25.4 percent.
No sixth-graders in the language art literacy testing, scored advanced compared to the state average of 2.4 percent. Of those students, 33.3 percent scored proficient in the district while the state average was 54.9 percent. The state average in partial proficiency tested was 42.7 percent while Jamesburg sixth graders scored 66.7 percent in this area.
In mathematics, the district’s sixth-graders scored 12.7 percent in advanced proficient compared to the state average of 20.1 percent. In addition, 47.9 percent scored proficient while the state average was 52.1 percent. In the district, 39.4 percent of sixth-graders scored partially proficient, compared to the state average of 27.8 percent.
”We have an issue with our sixth-grade,” Dr. Verona said of the scores. “But that’s been going on all over the state.”
In language arts literacy, 40 percent of the district’s seventh-graders tested partially proficient, compared to the state average of 29.4 percent. In addition, 60 percent tested proficient compared to the state average of 55.8 percent. No Jamesburg seventh-graders tested advanced in this area, compared to the state average of 14.7 percent.
In mathematics, 52 percent of the district’s seventh-graders tested partially proficient compared with the state average of 35.6 percent. In addition, 38 percent of the district tested proficient while the state average was 44.6 percent. Ten percent of Jamesburg’s seventh-graders tested advanced compared to the state average of 19.9 percent.
In the language arts literacy test, 24.2 percent of eighth-graders tested partially proficient compared to the state average of 18.6 percent. In addition, 74.2 percent tested proficient, where the state average was 69.9 percent. One and a half percent of the district’s eight-graders tested advanced while the state average was 11.5 percent.
In mathematics, 43.3 percent of eighth-graders tested partially proficient compared to the state average of 32.4 percent. In addition, 41.7 percent of the district’s eighth-graders tested proficient compared to the state’s 42.8 percent. The district had 14.9 percent of eighth-graders who tested advanced while the state had an average of 24.9 percent.
In science, 13.4 percent of eighth-graders tested at partially proficient levels compared to the state average of 15.7 percent. In addition, 59.7 percent of district-eighth graders tested proficient while the state average was 51.9 percent. The district had 26.9 percent of eighth-graders test advanced, while the state average was 32.3 percent.
Even though all administrators are looking for improvement, time is of the essence, as the state expects all schools to test at proficient levels by 2013-14. These were the requirements placed by the No Child Left Behind Act, which uses testing scores to measure improvements and, ultimately, to raise the standards set for schools nationwide.
”As an educator I would like to believe that all students have the ability to achieve at proficient levels,” Dr. Verona said. “But it takes hard work, it takes commitment, it takes teachers doing extraordinary things in the classroom. In a way the high accountability does promote a lot of good thing happening, educationally.”

