Superintendent of Schools John Scavelli provided information from the School Performance Report at the April 25 board of education meeting.
According to Scavelli, the School Performance Report, formerly the state Report Cards, was released by the state Department of Education.
For ETSD, in addition to the eight sending districts to the Lenape Regional High School District, the scores were inaccurate, according to Scavelli.
The problem was directly related to students who took algebra I, in addition to the state’s calculation of absenteeism in students.
LRHSD sending schools utilize the same curriculum as the high schools, and students receive high school credit for the class.
The districts cannot then fill out middle school numbers, resulting in “non-applicable” in the results. The information recoded was then inaccurate and resulted in “non college and career ready” status.
The data was previously embargoed by the state.
“We understand that the shift from the old report cards to the new format will be an adjustment for some superintendents, which is the exact reason the draft reports were sent out under embargo — so we could receive feedback from the field and address any identified errors,” Department of Education Press Secretary Barbara Morgan told The Sun in April.
The major difference from the performance report and report cards is the comparison of similar districts.
“School Performance Reports will carry many of the same categories of data as did the Report Cards, with additional information categories,” Richard Vespucci, spokesman for the DOE, said in an email. “Also, school stats will be compared against peer districts, based on common characteristics identified by the state Department of Education.”
The state gave the district time to explore what was wrong and why based on chronic absentee rates.
“They were all inaccurate and were recalculated.
“The state included tardies and absents, which inflated it,” Scavelli said. “The district had appropriate met targets in just about all categories, much different than what the state reported.”
Additionally, the state replaced “non-applicable” with zero.
According to the DOE, the purpose of the new Performance Report Overview will enable participants to engage in local goal setting, improvement planning and performance management in addition to indicating career and college readiness.
The assessment includes spelling development lists of words, spelling features and patterns, according to Scavelli.
The test, taken at the beginning of the year and mid-year, indicates different spelling stages to determine the students’ progress overall.
“The students did well and showed typical growth,” Scavelli said.
In other news:
The Comparative Spending Guide was released and included education spending from the 2011–12 school year.
According to Scavelli, the overall costs dropped.
Evesham Township School District’s most cost-effective spending area was administration.
The next board of education meeting is scheduled for May 23 at 7 p.m. Meetings are held at Marlton Elementary School, located at 190 Tomlinson Mill Road.
