MILLSTONE – If Laura Vetere was grading the school district on its test scores, she would give it a “very good.”
Vetere, the director of curriculum and instruction in the Millstone Township School District, gave a presentation about township students’ scores on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) for grades 3-7 and the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) at the Aug. 27 Board of Education meeting. She noted that the scores on the tests were high, even though the district spends relatively little money per student when compared to other school districts in the state.
Vetere said that because the school district does not have a lot of transient students, most grade levels have the same student body from year to year. Students who were in third grade in 2006 and in fourth grade in 2007 saw the percentage of pupils scoring at the advanced proficient level in the language arts portion of the NJ ASK rise from 10.2 percent to 14.3 percent. When extracting the special education student test scores from that information, Vetere said that 11.7 percent of regular education students scored at the advanced proficient level last year and that 16.3 percent of those students scored at that level this year.
For the math portion of the NJ ASK, 64.5 percent of fourth-grade regular education students scored at the advanced proficient level this year compared to 43.2 percent scoring at that level last year. Vetere said that 56.5 percent of special education students are considered advanced proficient in math, compared to 26.1 percent last year.
When comparing the same students in fourth grade in 2006 to those in fifth grade in 2007, advanced proficient scores in the language arts section of NJ ASK went from 10.4 percent to 19 percent for regular education students, and from zero to 4.3 percent for special education students, according to Vetere.
For those who were in fifth grade in 2006 and in sixth grade in 2007, advanced proficiency in the language arts portion of the NJ ASK rose from 17.2 percent to 21.1 percent for regular education students, and in the math portion went from 4.4 percent to 6.8 percent for special education students.
A comparison of 2006’s sixth grade with 2007’s seventh grade showed that advanced proficiency in the language arts portion of the NJ ASK went from 24.1 percent to 29.5 percent for regular education students, and from 3.2 percent to 3.3 percent for special education students. Special education students scored the same percentages in advanced proficiency for math in 2006 and 2007, according to Vetere.
Regular education seventh-graders had a 26.3 percent advanced proficiency in math in 2006 and a 42.2 percent advanced proficiency in math as eighth-graders in 2007. For the special education students in that grade level, 2.8 percent scored advanced proficient in math last year, whereas 7.7 percent scored at that level this year.
Vetere said that the most growth in advanced proficient scores for both the language arts and math sections took place in grades three and four. She said that teachers in those grade levels benefited from staff development delivered by content specialists in both areas.
Superintendent of Schools Mary Anne Donahue said she is very pleased with the progress the school district is making with its test scores. She said teachers and administrators have spent a lot of time working with the students.
Vetere said that Millstone spends the least amount of money per pupil of any neighboring K-8 district with more than 750 students. Millstone’s state District Factor Group (DFG) changed three years ago to more accurately reflect its socioeconomic status and is currently an I district. The district spends $8,485 per pupil, with 77 percent of the local tax levy going to support the schools.
Other local I districts include Rumson, which spends $10,235 per pupil or 87 percent of the tax levy; Marlboro, which spends $9,279 per pupil at 80 percent of the tax levy; Colts Neck, which spends $10,144 per pupil at 88 percent of the tax levy; and Fair Haven, which spends $8,834 per pupil at 91 percent of the tax levy.
Of all the 91 K-8 districts in the state, Millstone is sixth from the bottom of the list for per-pupil spending, with only Hamilton, Bellmawr Borough, Gloucester Township, Guttenberg Township and Byram Township spending less money. Of these, only Byram Township, which spends $8,407 per pupil, is considered an I district, according to Vetere.
Next year, Vetere said, the school district’s goals include continuing to improve scores in all areas by increasing the number of students scoring in the proficient and advanced proficient ranges in all student categories. The curriculum will also be revised to meet the needs of the district as well as state requirements, she said. In addition, the district will continue to provide its teachers with resources and staff development, according to Vetere.