LAWRENCE: Grant rewards LMS performance

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Five years ago, Lawrence Middle School landed on the New Jersey Department of Education’s list of “schools in need of improvement” because students were not making the grade on the state’s standardized tests.
    But after several years of intensive work to help seventh- and eighth-graders, LMS has been awarded a $100,000 grant for “particularly notable” success in “rising student achievement,” according to a March 4 letter from the DOE to school district officials.
    LMS is one of 26 schools in the state to receive the School Rewards Grant allocation of $100,000, according to LMS Principal Andrew Zuckerman. The award was given to the school because the students have demonstrated they are making adequate yearly progress on the standardized tests, administered under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
    “I am ecstatic,” Mr. Zuckerman said. “I would rather have this news any day of the week. It validates the hard work that the students and the staff have put in to raise the level of expectations (for the students).”
    He credited the work of educators at all grade levels — beginning with the elementary schools — for helping to improve student achievement.
    To make adequate yearly progress, students must meet the proficiency target in math and language arts literacy for each test administered at the school and for each of nine subgroups — special education students, limited English proficiency students, whites, blacks, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Native Americans, Hispanics, others and economically disadvantaged.
    LMS students made adequate yearly progress in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years, Mr. Zuckerman said. The determination was made on the basis of year-to-year comparisons of test scores for each of the nine subgroups.
    Superintendent of Schools Philip Meara visited LMS to make the announcement at a staff meeting last week, Mr. Zuckerman said. The staff members were “obviously pleased” at the recognition of their hard work, he said, adding it was “nice” the state recognized their efforts.
    “(The award) recognizes successful achievement,” he said. “NCLB has been harping on schools for not achieving. This (award) was unexpected. We’ll have to start a different focus, but it’s something we are understandably willing to do.”
    Mr. Zuckerman said the NCLB team at the middle school plans to meet to determine how it wants to spend the money. Right now, everyone has his or her own ideas as to how to spend the money, he said.
    Efforts could be made to enhance student performance by helping students who have demonstrated partial proficiency in math or language arts literacy to become proficient, he said. Students who are proficient could be helped to become advanced proficient.
    “The (ideas) we will really look at are the ones that directly relate to student achievement — programs that will assist us to help increase the students’ understanding of math and language arts,” Mr. Zuckerman said.