With help from teachers, parents, administration and the community, the students of Medford scored well on the annual report cards recently released by the state Department of Education.
The report cards, based upon the 2010–2011 school year, show proficiency in student testing, information concerning classroom environments, the finances of the district and details on the staff and students.
The graduation rate was 98.10 percent at Shawnee High School, which was above the Lenape Regional High School District average of 96.89 percent — the highest rate in Burlington County according to assistant superintendent Carol L. Birnbohm.
Students who took the SAT performed better than the state average in all three categories.
In math, the average score was 551 compared to the state score of 517. The verbal section had students scoring an average of 543, while the state averaged in at 493. The essay portion garnered an average of 533 with the state scoring 496.
The average Lenape District total score was 1566.
Birnbohm emphasized the importance of completing the PSAT assessment prior to taking the SAT.
There is a huge correlation between student scores and the completion of the PSAT, she said.
The HSPA scores also show improvement at the district level.
“Students did very well on the HSPA,” said Birnbohm. “We’ve improved in both the math and the language arts literacy assessment.”
Some 96.9 percent of the total district population was either proficient or advanced in the field of language arts while 88.3 percent scored similarly in math.
At Shawnee High School, 97.7 percent were either proficient or advanced in language arts and 90.9 percent in math.
Average class sizes were 24.7 students per class, which was higher than the state average of 19.
There were 12 students per faculty member, a number slightly higher than the state average of 11.2.
Shawnee administrative personnel had a median salary of $125,274, down from the 2009–2010 school year’s $129,812, but higher than the state median of $121,597.
Teachers’ salaries median rate was $64,295 while the state median was $68,435.
It cost $19,265 to educate each student in the district.
“We have very involved parents. We have great sending districts that feed to us,” Birnbohm said. “We have students and teachers that come prepared and willing to work.”
That sentiment begins at the secondary level in Medford.
According to Thomas Olson, Medford Township School District’s administrative director of programming and planning, staff and parents working together keep the education train moving.
“It’s a community effort,” he said. “We have really great learners.”
There are seven school buildings within the K-8 district.
Class sizes at Chairville Elementary School, with an average of 18.7 students in a classroom, came in slightly lower than the state average of 19. Other district schools were marginally higher than the state average.
While the NJASK tests come each year, they do not have a strong impact on the methods of teaching, said Olson.
“We don’t spend a lot of time stopping what we’re doing,” he said. “For the most part, we try not to deviate from our standard program.”
The K-8 district trusts the curriculum in line with Common Core Standards and instruction to prepare students for the test.
“Particularly in reading and writing, we do have some test-like content that we’ve embedded in some of our units of study,” he said. “We do a little bit of work in which we do have the kids practice the test format.”
This especially rings true in the lower grades, where students have taken multiple choice and open-ended question practice tests.
Only 3.9 percent of students at Cranberry Pines School were partially proficient in the fifth-grade NJASK test math section. The rest were either proficient or advanced in their scores.
At the eighth-grade level, students who took the NJASK test were nearly all either proficient or advanced in language arts. Only 2.7 percent showed a need for improvement.
Administrators and teachers faired well in the income department as well.
The median salary of administrators in the district was $109,744, while the state median was $111,133.
Teachers were paid more than the state at $67,286. The state median was $59,575.
And the total cost to educate each student? $15,615.
Next school year, the Department of Education will begin to develop and publish school performance reports to replace the report card, according to a release by the state.
“Through these reports, 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,” reads the 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.”
The hope is for the state to provide better information through the new reports.
“While these Report Cards provide some helpful information to parents, the general public, and school administrators about school performance, the Department has long acknowledged that we can do a much better job of providing actionable information for the purposes of school improvement. We are moving to a new School Performance Report next year that will provide unprecedented data on how our schools are doing,” said acting commissioner Chris Cerf.
While Olson said the current report card gives a fairly accurate picture, it doesn’t fully depict the true essence of the district.
“It doesn’t capture all the different content areas,” he said. “It’s a useful tool for some parents to get a sense of what some of the school is like.”
According to Joseph J. Del Rossi, superintendent of schools, in the district narrative released in Jan., “Collaboration, partnership, and cooperation by students, parents, faculty, and community members are vital to our districts’ success. Together, we share in educating students to appreciate and respect the contribution of individual talents, cultures, and backgrounds that reflect our society.”
