Schools

Help for Under-Achieving Township Schools Could Be On the Way

The Gloucester Township school board could award a contract for a curriculum consultant at its next meeting.

Request for proposals have been submitted by educational consulting firms bidding to help align Gloucester Township schools to a new state core curriculum standard.

The Board of Education could award a contract at its next meeting on May 20.

The consultant could be a key to improving performance in district schools. Seven of 11 township schools failed to meet academic achievement targets in school performance reports released last month.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We really want to be transparent and let people know the action we are taking that are steps in the right direction," said Joanne Acerba, the district's director of curriculum instruction. "From my perspective, it's a really exciting time. We've got some good stuff coming. The fact that we have a new central administration at a time when the state has all these new mandates is pretty impressive."

Acerba said RFP bids range from $30,000 to $259,000 for curriculum consultants. But she expects a firm that meets the districts needs may come in significantly less than $100,000.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We have great kids and great teachers," she said. "Now it's a matter of aligning our resources."

Districts around the state are preparing for new state core curriculum standards. The preparation in Gloucester Township is even more acute because the majority of the district's K-8 schools failed meet achievement targets.

"All they do at each grade level is say here are the grammar standards, here's the writing standard, reading or math," Acerba said. "Then it's up to the school district to say what materials, resources, text books, technology to use to meet that standard. How we deliver that instruction is up to the individual school district. Everyone is mandated the same standard but how we get there is unique."

District students are scheduled to take the NJ ASK, Assessments Skills and Knowledge, test next week. In addition to a curriculum consultant, the district has also purchased the STAR reading and math program for each of its three middle schools, which all failed to meet state performance targets.

STAR allows for individual performance testing throughout the year and not just once a year with the NJ ASK test. School officials hope its another step toward meeting proficiency targets.

The cost of the STAR program was not immediately reported by the district. But Acerba warned that you can't always put a price tag on student achievement.

"We're not just going to spend for spending money sake," she said. "We're not just going to spend money on something that doesn't work. That's why we have an outside consultant coming in to work with us and evaluate what we have."


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