District says test offers faulty gauge of student progress
By Davy James, Staff Writer
Five out of seven South Brunswick elementary schools did not meet required proficiency levels in language arts on the 2009-10 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test, but district officials said the test is not an accurate gauge of the overall performance of individual schools.
Parents of students at Cambridge, Constable, Brooks Crossing, Indian Fields and Greenbrook elementary schools received letters explaining that the schools didn’t meet targets on the NJASK test. The parents were given the opportunity to open enroll at Brunswick Acres or Monmouth Junction elementary schools, where targets were met.
The option for enrollment at the two other elementary schools comes as part of sanctions for not reaching adequate yearly progress levels on the test. District officials said the results, which are expected to be released in full by the state this week, are a result of flaws in the testing criteria.
”Basically, we didn’t meet adequate yearly progress in certain schools and in one very specific area students with disabilities,” said school board President Matthew Speesler.
The test categorizes students using different indicators, such as students with disabilities or students living below the poverty level. If there are less than 30 students in one of those specific categories, those students test scores are not looked at as part of overall school performance. But when there are more than 30 students in a specific category the scores are tracked, according to Dr. Speesler.
”Because of the size of this district, these groups were looked at and counted and that’s what put the schools ‘as needing improvement,’” he said. “But when you meet 47 of the 48 indicators it’s unfair to call a certain school as being ‘in need of improvement.’ Because in certain schools, there are more than 30 of a specific population group, the scores are counted. It’s an unfair way of determining the efficiency of a school by looking at individual groups because all of our regular education groups passed.”
Other school officials questioned the fairness of students with disabilities taking the same standardized tests as other students.
”The issue is that our students with disabilities were asked to take the exact same test as our regular education students and we believe the way the test is construed isn’t the best way to find out what they know,” said Superintendent Gary McCartney. “Some youngsters already have difficulty taking standardized tests and this test sets those students up for failure and that’s a shame. Every youngster can succeed but some won’t succeed on the same day and on the same test.”
Dr. McCartney said that the threshold of 30 students for data to be counted in New Jersey was among the lowest in the nation and it is unfair to label the work of students with disabilities and their teachers as not meeting adequate yearly progress.
”It’s a sad circumstance when a school is labeled on the performance of some kids who are trying their hardest and teachers who are working their backsides off with them,” Dr. McCartney said. “If you take 40 indicators and you only miss on one category, in most instances that would be cause for celebration but instead it gets labeled as failing.”
Dr. McCartney said once full results are analyzed the district will have a better idea of where the problem areas are, but he said the performance of the district cannot be judged by the performance of young students taking a standardized test.
”The bottom line is that the high school made adequate yearly progress and if you look at this systematically as a work in progress then the kids exiting the system are an excellent indicator of the quality of the system,” Dr. McCartney said. “We think of this as a movie not a snapshot. The kids in grades three through five are not as proficient as we like but we will continue to work to that goal and make every youngster successful. Some youngsters take longer than others, but that’s why they’re in school 13 years with kindergarten and we need to keep them moving in the right direction.”

