Cranbury School receives marks above state average in nearly every caregory of State School Report Card.
By: Matthew Kirdahy
Cranbury School students are once again, above average.
The 2002-2003 State School Report Cards, released annually by the state Department of Education as a way to provide more information to the public about schools, shows that Cranbury School students scored above the state average in nearly every category.
"I’m pleased with their overall performance both on the fourth and eighth grade test scores," Chief School Administrator Carol Malouf said. "This test is just one tool to measure the academic growth and performance of the students. We don’t teach to the test. We teach to the day."
Categories for the 2002-2003 school year included student attendance rate, class size, faculty attendance rate and student-to-computer ratio.
The report card also showed that Cranbury students overall performance on the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment and the Elementary School Proficiency Assessment were all above the state average.
According to the cards, 69 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in the language arts portion of the GEPA. Only 3.1 percent of students were partially proficient; 69.2 percent of the students were proficient; and 27.7 percent advanced proficient.
Statewide, the average is 67 percent for eighth grade proficiency in language arts, while 26.2 percent were partially proficient and 6.6 percent were advanced proficient.
In mathematics, just 4.6 percent of the students tested in Cranbury School were partially proficient; 30.8 percent were partially proficient; and 64.6 percent were advanced proficient.
Statewide, 43.2 percent of students were partially proficient; 40.8 percent were proficient while 15.9 percent were advanced proficient.
In science, 4.6 percent of Cranbury students were partially proficient; 38.5 percent were proficient; and 56.9 percent were advanced proficient.
The state average for partial proficiency in science was 27.1 percent while 54.3 percent of students are proficient and 18.6 percent are advanced proficient.
In the Elementary School Proficiency Assessments, given to fourth-graders, 4.6 percent of students were proficient in language arts, 83.1 were proficient and 12.3 percent were advanced proficient.
The state average for language arts was 20.9 percent of students partially proficient, 73.1 percent proficient and 6 percent advanced proficient.
In mathematics, Cranbury School students scored 6.2 percent partially proficient, 23.1 percent proficient and 70.8 percent advanced proficient.
Throughout the state, 31.5 percent of general education fourth-graders were partially proficient in math, while 41.3 percent were proficient and 27.2 percent advanced proficient.
The report card also showed that 100 percent of the classrooms in the Cranbury School are wired for Internet access, called Internet connectivity on the report cards, compared to the state average of 97 percent.
The Cranbury School also has a student to computer ratio of 3 to 1 compared to the state average of 4.4 students to one computer.
Cranbury attendance compared favorably to the state average in attendance, with 96.1 percent of students present daily at school, 1.8 percent higher than the state average.
The average Cranbury class size was 19.7 students per class, .4 percent above the state average of 19.3 percent.
There was a student faculty ratio of 9.5 to 1, 2.7 percent below the state average and a 97.5 percent faculty attendance rate, 2.2 percent above the state average.
In addition, 1.1 percent of students were suspended at Cranbury School, whereas 4.7 percent of students were suspended throughout the state. Last year, no students were suspended.
Teachers at the Cranbury School also were paid well last year, according to the report card.
The median salary for teachers in the district increased $1,239 to $54,799, higher than the state median of $45,230. Teachers in Cranbury also have had four extra years of experience compared to the state’s 12 years.
In addition, Cranbury administrators are earning a higher wage with a $91,000 median salary, $6,000 more than the state median of $85,000.
The state average for per pupil expenditures is $11,313, $1,519 less than the Cranbury average of $12,832.
"We’re working to continue to provide an outstanding education for the children," Ms. Malouf said. "We’re grateful because financially the community supports us 100 percent and they have really made a commitment to education in Cranbury."