Schools
New Jersey Issues Annual School Report Card
The Department of Education promises revamped report cards next year.
It’s that time of year when taxpayers across New Jersey get to see how the schools in their area rate in a multitude of areas.
The New Jersey Department of Education released its 2010-11 School Report Card, which assesses schools in more than 30 different areas. Some of the categories in which the schools are judged are school environment, student information, school performance indicators, staff information and district finances.
The three Black Horse Pike Regional School District high schools and Gloucester Township Public Schools' eight elementary and middle schools were among hundreds statewide included in the assessment.
Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Highlights from the local schools' report cards include:
- According to High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) testing in language arts, 94.2 percent of BHPRSD students scored as proficient (81.1) or advanced proficient (13.1), up from 90.5 percent in 2009-10 and more than three percentage points above the state average for 2010-11 (90.5).
- In mathematics, 75.1 percent of BHPRSD students scored as proficient (59.8) or advanced proficient (15.3), up nearly 17 percentage points from 2009-10 (58.6).
- More BHPRSD students took the SAT in 2010-11 than the prior year (Highland, 182 compared to 163 in 2009-10; Timber Creek, 253 to 201; and Triton, 206 to 203).
- The median salary (not to be confused with "average salary") for BHPRSD administrators in 2010-11 was $109,962, up from $106,664 in 2009-2010, but below the state average of $121,597. In the K-8 district, the median salary for administrators was $100,684, up from $98,369 in 2009-2010, but below the state average of $111,133.
- The median salary for BHPRSD faculty was $58,063 in 2010-11, up from $56,060 in 2009-10, but below the state average of $68,435. In Gloucester Township Public Schools (GTPS), the median salary for faculty was $61,600, up from $58,875 in 2009-10, but below the state average of $59,575.
- BHPRSD spent $16,025 per pupil in 2010-11, down from $16,497 the prior year, while GTPS spent $13,662 per child, down from $14,221 in 2009-10
- Attendance rates for the three BHPRSD high schools each fell below the state average of 94.6 percent, with Triton at 92.9 percent, Highland at 93.4 percent and Timber Creek at 94.3 percent.
- Graduation rates for the three high schools were: Triton, 87.74 percent; Highland, 91.37 percent; and Timber Creek, 93.37 percent.
New school-performance reports for every school in the state will be developed next year, the New Jersey Department of Education announced last week. The new reports will take the place of separate school report cards and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reports.
Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"The department will set specific school and subgroup performance targets for both language arts and math, and will report annual progress towards meeting those goals," the DOE said in a news release.
"In addition, the reports will include a number of new data points including progress towards closing achievement gaps, comparison to 'peer schools' with similar demographics, growth as measured through Student Growth Percentiles on state tests over time, and additional college and career readiness data points. These public reports will help districts and schools to engage in local performance management by setting local performance goals, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing local plans to focus on areas of low performances in their districts."
Report cards for each school are available at the following links:
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