Upper Freehold Region School District receives high marks on New Jersey Department of Education report card.
By: Sarah Winkelman
UPPER FREEHOLD Students in the Upper Freehold Regional School District continue to score well on tests when compared to their peers in similar districts around the state, according to school report cards released by the New Jersey Department of Education earlier this month.
Superintendent Robert Connelly said he was pleased with the students’ performance.
"Overall, when you look at how we compare to other schools in our District Factor Group (DFG) we are exactly where we should be," he said Tuesday.
The DFG are districts that are similar in socio-economic makeup.
At Allentown High School, students performed better on the language arts section of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) than DFG schools, according to the report. Almost 92 percent of students were proficient or advanced proficient compared to 86.3 percent in the DFG.
In the math portion of the HSPA, 79.1 percent of students were proficient or advanced proficient. That number is almost 6 percent higher than the DFG.
In both sections of the assessment, the number of students placing in the advanced proficient level fell from the 2001-02 school year. In the language arts section, students earning an advanced proficiency fell from 17.6 percent to 16.9 percent.
For the math section, students earning an advanced proficiency fell from 23.1 to 21.8 percent since last year. Even with the decline in advanced scores, AHS still had more students earn an advanced rating over DFG schools.
The 20022003 school year saw a marginal increase in student’s scores on the SATs. The average math score for AHS students was 523 and the average verbal score was 506. The highest score for each section is 800 points. SAT math scores have remained fairly constant since the 2000-2001 school year while verbal scores have increased slightly.
Unlike many schools experiencing overcrowding because of increased enrollment, AHS has a lower average class size then DFG schools. At the high school there are 18.8 students per class compared to the DFG average of 19.3 students.
AHS also has a lower dropout rate compared to other DFG schools. For the 2002-03 school year 0.9 percent of students dropped out compared to the DFG average of 1.9 percent. However, only 91.4 percent of the Class of 2003 graduated last year compared to the DFG average of 97.5 percent.
Students taking the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment earned a higher number of proficient ratings in language arts, math and science than other eighth-grade students in DFG schools.
In language arts, 86.6 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient or advanced proficient compared to the 80.9 percent DFG average. In math, 81 percent of the students were proficient or advanced proficient, almost 20 percent more then the DFG average.
Science was also a strong area for Upper Freehold eighth-graders. This year 89.5 percent of the students were proficient or advanced proficient compared to 82.6 percent in the DFG.
Upper Freehold’s growing pains can be seen in its ever-increasing enrollment figures. For the 2002-03 school year there were 1,010 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, with an average class size of 23 students per class. The state average is 19.3.
Fourth-grade students taking the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test scored a higher percent of proficient ratings then DFG schools. In language arts, 92.6 percent of students were proficient or advanced proficient. The DFG average was 84.4 percent.
In math, 82.3 percent of students were proficient or advanced proficient, 7.9 percent more than DFG schools.
The goal now, Dr. Connelly said, will be to increase student performance so that a greater number of students are performing at an advanced proficient rate. The report cards measures students at three levels partially proficient, proficient and advanced proficient.
"I think we are doing a good job but we would, of course, love to have more of our students performing at a higher level," he said. "That has been our goal for quite some time now."
Dr. Connelly said administrators and teachers will review the report cards thoroughly and implement changes where they are needed.
"I anticipate overall improvements, but it is too early to tell exactly how we will move beyond what is considered an appropriate score and into the advanced area," he said.
Assistant Superintendent Maybeth Conway said changes to the SATs will dictate changes to curriculum in the future. Educational Testing Service is expected to begin administering the revised SATs in spring 2005.
"The SATs change every 10 to 12 years," Ms. Conway said. "Apparently a number of people at the college level suggested that there were problems with students coming into college and not being prepared properly. ETS realized that the current SATs were not adequately measuring the skills students needed to do well at the college level."
Ms. Conway said the current SAT measures just verbal and math skills. The new test will measure critical reading, writing and math.
Critical reading will demand that students utilize a higher level of thinking in all subject areas while writing will emphasize grammar and include a spontaneous writing sample similar to Advanced Placement tests.
The math section will be broadened to include algebra 2. The current math portion only deals with algebra 1 and geometry.
"All the areas of the test will be much more demanding," Ms. Conway said. "The tests are moving away from basic vocabulary skills and literal comprehension into complex, interpretative thinking."
She added that Allentown High School students would be given assessments similar in format to the SATs to prepare them for the test.
"We can’t teach kids as if they were training for a marathon and then measure how well they sprint," she said. "We have to give them the opportunity to practice their skills in a similar fashion to the way the SATs will be testing them."
Like most districts throughout the state, Upper Freehold is dealing with rising costs and less state aid. This year the district received a 4.8 percent increase in aid, which amounted to an additional $192,419. However, state aid had been frozen while the district took on an additional 416 students over the past four years.
That means that the district should have received an extra $1 million in aid.
"While we appreciate any increase in state aid, the increase was barely a drop in the bucket in terms of the overall budget," Dr. Connelly said.
Upper Freehold depends on 20 percent of local revenue to operate, while the state average is 42 percent. That means that residents are responsible for 52 percent of the budget, 3 percent more then the state average.