By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
Students in the East Windsor Regional School District performed above state averages in virtually every category in state standardized testing, according to the State Report Cards released Wednesday by the state Department of Education.
The figures in the report are from the 2007-2008 school year, and show a marked increase in student proficiency on both the language arts and mathematics sections of the High School Proficiency Assessment among students at Hightstown High School. The test is given to students in the 11th grade.
Assistant Superintendent Michael Dzwonar said he was pleased with the performance of the high school students.
”We saw a nice spike in the 11th grade, and I was very happy to see that,” he said. [vmo: could be cut for space: ]”It looks like they did really well.”
On the language arts portion of the exam, 79.2 percent of the students tested at a proficient (passing) level, up from 64.7 percent in the prior school year. The number of students who tested at partial (not passing) proficiency level dropped to 10.9 percent, down 17.5 percent from the prior school year.
However, the number of students who showed advanced proficiency also dropped to 10 percent from 17.8 percent in 2006-2007.
The state averages were 71.1 percent proficient, 16.6 percent partial proficient and 12.3 percent advanced proficiency.
On the mathematics portion of the exam, 56.8 percent of students tested at a proficient level, up from 49.2 percent in the prior school year. Students testing at a partial proficiency level dropped to 20.8 percent from 27.8 percent in the prior year, and students testing at an advanced level dropped slightly to 22.3 percent from 23 percent in 2006-2007.
These were also above state averages of 51.8 percent proficient, 24.6 percent partially proficient and 23.6 percent advanced proficiency.
Mr. Dzwonar credited the increase in proficiency and drop in partial proficiency scoring to the high school’s increased efforts to target the specific weaknesses of students and address them.
”We have been giving diagnostic assessments to our 9th- and 10th-graders that target not only that they need help in a subject, but specifically where they need help,” he said. “The point is that we are providing targeted assistance, and I think that really helped us in terms of getting students to a proficient level.”
Students at Melvin H. Kreps Middle School also exceeded state standards on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge exam. The school had a higher percentage of students in the advanced proficiency category than the state average and a lower percentage of students in the partial category than the state average for every subject in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
Among eighth-graders, 16.4 percent scored in the advanced proficiency category for language arts, above the 11.5 percent state average. In addition, 31 percent of the eighth-graders scored in the advanced proficiency category for mathematics, above the 24.9 percent state average.
Eighth-graders are the only class given a science section on the NJASK. At the middle school, 51.6 percent of the students were proficient, 10 percent were partially proficient and 38.4 displayed advanced proficiency. The state averages were 51.9 percent proficient, 15.7 partially proficient and 32.3 with advanced proficiency.
Among the district’s elementary schools, students exceeded state proficiency standards in almost every category at every grade level. The only exception was among the district’s third-graders, who scored at 80.9 percent proficient, 14.4 percent partially proficient and 4.8 percent showing advanced proficiency. The state average is 81.5 percent proficient, 13.9 percent partially proficient and 4.6 percent showing advanced proficiency.
The most striking exceeding of state averages was among the fifth-grade students in the math portion of the test. Forty-three percent of the students scored in the advanced category; 15.1 percent above the state average of 27.9 percent. In addition, 13.2 percent scored in the partially proficient category, more than 10 percent less than the state average of 23.4 percent.
