State shows UFRSD not up to par with its peers
Report card gives local school district below-average grades
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

The 2006 New Jersey School Report Card test results are in, and the Upper Freehold Regional School District is below average for its District Factor Group.

The District Factor Group (DFG) measures a district's socioeconomic status, ranging from an A for the poorest districts to a J for the wealthiest. The Upper Freehold Regional School District (UFRSD) is rated a GH.

In the NJASK4 (New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge) test given to fourth-graders to measure their language, science and math skills, the number of UFRSD students with advanced skills was below the DFG average in all three subjects. The test measures students at partially proficient, proficient and advanced.

At Allentown High School, the number of students at the advanced level also fell below the DFG average for the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), which measures the math and language skills of 11th-graders.

While the 2005-06 SAT results show that only 66 percent of eligible students took the SAT, Maybeth Conway, assistant superintendent and curriculum director, said the figure is not accurate due to an error in recording the total student enrollment on the state report card. She said a review of College Board records shows that 178 of the 235 seniors took the SAT last year, which equates to more than 75 percent. The number is close to that listed for Colts Neck High School at 72 percent, and Monmouth Regional and Matawan Regional high schools, both at 79 percent. The number is below districts such as Manalapan High School at 87 percent, Wall High School in Wall Township at 85 percent, or Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, where UFRSD's interim Superintendent of Schools Robert Smith formerly presided, at 90 percent.

When asked about the results, Conway said the UFRSD is a changing school district with many variables in flux.

"In the past few years, our largely agrarian community has been inundated with upscale new developments," Conway said. "This has had an impact on our demographics, our District Factor Group and the academic aspirations of some of our students and their families."

Conway said the rapidly growing student body has put enormous financial pressures on school officials and the community at large.

"State budget caps and limited ratables have forced us to reduce or eliminate services in a number of important programmatic areas just to meet the essential needs such as teachers, desks and books for our ever-expanding student body," she said.

According to Conway, the district's special education population is growing at a rate that significantly exceeds the growth of the general education population.

"I believe that this growth is a reflection on the fine services that our staff are providing to our most challenged students," Conway said. "Parents of special needs students are choosing to move into our district to enroll in these programs."

Conway said that in her opinion, each of the previously stated factors has a direct bearing on the district's standardized test scores.

In 2005, the school district's DFG changed from FG to GH. Conway said the change in the DFG means that scores are now being compared against a more demanding academic standard. While the district remains above the state average in almost all areas, she said, certain areas require additional work in order to raise the performance to the level of the new DFG peers.

A review of the performance data demonstrates the impact of the disproportionate increase in the special education population, Conway said. As an example, she said that the district's total score on the NJASK4 appears to have declined over the past three years, with total language arts pass rates of 88.9 percent in 2004, 88.9 percent in 2005 and 84.6 percent in 2006.

"However," she said, "in that same time period, our special education population grew from 8.3 percent of our grade-level enrollment to 12.7 percent."

Conway said that if the performance of the general education population is examined, excluding special education, the performance has actually improved consistently from 89.9 percent in 2004 to 90.4 percent in 2005 to 91.9 percent in 2006.

"This same pattern is dramatically repeated at each testing level," she said.

Conway added that budget challenges have chipped away at many of the important support services that were formerly provided to students and teachers.

"We have modified our standards for identifying elementary school students who will take part in basic skills programs," Conway said. "We no longer have the services of an elementary reading specialist to assist teachers in their classrooms, nor do we support the high school math lab that once provided additional assistance to our struggling students."

While the staff and the Board of Education hope to restore and expand the resources, the school district's financial challenges have not made that possible, according to Conway. However, she said that in the past few years, the staff has been asked to examine the performance data and implement program improvements.

"At the lower grades," Conway said, "we've focused on math initially, with teachers creating grade-level curriculum maps, assuring close alignment with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS), engaging in cross-grade articulation and infusing more test preparation strategies into their classes."

The results are gratifying, according to Conway, with the total NJASK4 pass rate improving from 78.8 percent to 85.3 percent and the general education pass rate growing from 77.8 percent to 92 percent in just two years.

"At the eighth-grade level, we focused on language arts performance with similar success," Conway said. "We now have a total GEPA [Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment] pass rate of 92.6 percent and a general education pass rate of 96.5 percent."

She continued, "We returned to math at the high school and raised our total pass rate from 79.1 percent to 82.2 percent and our general education pass rate from 84.9 percent to 91.6 percent. At all levels, our teachers and students are working to achieve steady improvement despite formidable challenges."

At the elementary/middle school level, the use of timed writing assignments and scoring rubrics has been expanded, according to Conway. The district has also implemented running records to more accurately assess reading levels, she said, and has placed greater emphasis on test preparation activities.

Allentown High School has tripled its Advanced Placement (AP) course offerings, she said. Conway said the high school has also implemented a Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) initiative, requiring all teachers to expand their emphasis on critical reading and controlled writing; realigned the sequence of math courses to better serve the needs of struggling math students; and created an online math resource for all students to encourage HSPA test preparation activities.

"We are hopeful that these efforts will translate into a continuous pattern of improvement that will sustain our scores at a level that is well above state averages as we move into alignment with our new District Factor Group," she said.

Conway said the school district plans to complete the K-12 curriculum mapping process this year to assure the appropriateness of all course content. In addition, the district will continue to emphasize data-driven decision making and differentiated instruction as major professional development initiatives, according to Conway. Also in the works is an expansion of articulation efforts to provide more ongoing communication within and across grade levels.

Conway said the district hopes to implement several new high school courses that are designed to strengthen academic achievement for all students. The staff will reach out to districts whose performance exceeds that of the Upper Freehold Regional School District, she said, in an effort to gain new insights on instructional strategies and in other areas.

"We are looking to strengthen the home-school connection so that parents will find meaningful ways to bring their influence and expertise into the academic achievement process," she said. "Again, we optimistically anticipate that these efforts will keep us on the path to improved student performance."

Conway said that as demographics change, the district is experiencing a gradual increase in the number of high school students who aspire to attend more prestigious and demanding colleges and universities.

"To meet their [students'] needs, we have made a concerted effort to increase the rigor of our college prep program and expand the range of our Advanced Placement course offerings," she said. "Our efforts are beginning to show results, with more of our students recording scores of 600 or 700 on this year's testing."

The district continues to serve many students whose future plans include community colleges, technical schools and colleges that no longer require SAT scores, she said.

"Thus, while more than 90 percent of our students are going on to post-secondary education, not all of these students are headed toward schools that require the SAT," she said.

According to Conway, efforts are being made to improve student performance on the SATs. She said all teachers are required to infuse SAT prep materials into their regular course work.

"Our district Curriculum Council has approved an SAT prep elective, but unfortunately, under our current budget constraints, we have not been able to introduce this course," Conway said. "We have recently purchased access to Peterson's Total Online Prep Solution (TOPS) for our students to access at school and at home.

"We are hopeful that this award-winning resource will help us in our efforts to boost student scores," she added.

Conway stressed that the district is very aware of the data.

"Our administrators and faculty are doing everything within our current resources to keep our students moving in a positive direction that will ultimately have us consistently performing at or above the level of our new District Factor Group," she said.