PRESENTED TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC APRIL 15, 2013 New Jersey Department of Education School Performance Reports

School Performance Report Overview Seeks to bring more information to educators and other stakeholders Hopes to spur conversations at school and district levels Cautions against using information to create a summative ranking of schools Acknowledges that essential elements of schools are not collected by DOE / used in the report 2012 report serves as a baseline year for certain data

Comparative Data Schools Across the State Peer school  Each school has a distinct peer school list  30 schools included  Lists may vary from year-to-year based on data  Not a ranking – simply listed alphabetically by county

Peer School Methodology  Propensity score matching  Researcher constructs comparison groups from data outside the control of an experiment  Schools Stratified based on  type - elementary, middle, high school or vocational high school  free- and/or reduced-price lunch  Statistical analysis (regression model with three covariates) applied  % free- and/or reduced lunch  % LEP  % Special Education  Any school within two standard deviations of the eligible school is included as a peer school.

Academic Achievement Data from the ASK including: 1) schoolwide and subgroup proficiency levels; and 2) annual measurable objectives (these replace AYP previously used) which are calculated using 2011 as a baseline year and setting improvement targets for a five year period. These are also reported schoolwide and for subgroups. Note: This information on a district wide basis was provided to the Board of Education members and the public at an earlier Board meeting.

Student Academic Achievement SchoolState ComparisonPeer Group Comparison ARAverageHigh SMLaggingLagging RRLaggingHigh ROLaggingLagging MSAverageHigh

Schoolwide Student Growth All student growth scores are ranked from highest to lowest.  Student growth scores are calculated by comparing a student’s ASK performance to that academic peers (Students with a similar test history) throughout the state. Each student’s SGP is on a scale between 1 and 99. Median growth is identified to represent school wide student growth.

Schoolwide Student Growth Performance SchoolState ComparisonPeer Group Comparison ARHighHigh SMAverageHigh RRHighVery High ROHighVery High MSLaggingAverage

College and Career Readiness Chronic absenteeism Defined as “a student who is not present for 10% of the school year, for any reason.” Any school with more than 6% of the students having chronic absenteeism is reported as having not met the target. Only measure used at the elementary level.

College and Career Readiness Rankings – Elementary Schools School% Peer RankState Rank AR7% 6537 RR4% 9067 RO7% 5243 SM8% 7136

College and Career Readiness Middle Level Chronic Absenteeism  GTMS’ rate is 7%. Peer Rank: 68 State Rank:56 Participation of seventh and eighth grade students in Algebra I.  Any school without 20% of the students enrolled in Algebra I is reported as not having met the target.  GTMS has 19% of student enrolled in Algebra.  Students in Geometry did not count toward this measure. Peer Rank: 85 State Rank:52

Included in Prior School Report Card Format and New Format New to School Performance Report Format Length of School Day Instructional Time Student Suspension Rate Student Expulsion Rate Student to Staff Ratio Inclusion of Economically Disadvantaged in Enrollment by Program Participation Enrollment by Ethnic/Racial Subgroup Enrollment by Gender Within School Achievement Gap List of Peer Schools Additional Data

Next Steps / For Consideration Continue to focus on increasing student achievement Enhance understanding of student growth percentiles as related to the School Performance Report and Teacher / Principal Evaluation Review policies and procedures related to student absenteeism Consider advanced mathematics options in light of the report and the Common Core State Standards (which contradict one another)  Presentation to be made on April 22nd by Mrs. Napoli, Supervisor of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

To view the school report cards in their entirely visit:

QUESTIONS / COMMENTS