Local School Recognized for ‘Outstanding Student Growth’

The New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) recognized this week as a “Reward School” for showing outstanding student growth over the past three years, Fort Lee school officials announced.

The Reward School designation is based on median student growth percentiles (SGP), a measure of each student’s growth based on current achievement relative to that of his or her peers starting from the same point, according to school officials.

“Under the new statewide accountability system developed through the flexibility from certain provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the [DOE] developed three categories of schools based on a three-year average of growth and proficiency: Priority Schools, Focus Schools and Reward Schools,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle wrote in a letter to parents, guardians and community members posted on the school district’s website. “As a ‘Reward School,’ School No. 4 is being recognized publicly for significant growth in student achievement.”

Engravalle also pointed out that just 112 schools in New Jersey were identified by the state as Reward Schools.

“We’re very proud of our outstanding teachers, students and staff at School No. 4,” Engravalle told Patch Friday. “Clearly, their hard work and dedication is being recognized by the state of New Jersey, and we’re very pleased with this outstanding honor.”

He also said that moving forward, it’s going to be the school district’s goal “to make certain that the other five schools” in Fort Lee receive similar accolades in the near future “as we look to improve our curriculum, improve our practice and improve our services that we provide to students each and every day.”

According to Engravalle, the new statewide system of measuring student achievement is something he and other proponents have discussed for years.

He said “The standardized test results that were published in the newspapers did not accurately reflect the performance of our students because it did not measure cohorts; it only measured a grade level from year-to-year.”

As an example, Engravalle said that if third grade students in 2009-2010 were 85 percent proficient in a given subject, and in 2010-2011, third-graders were 90 percent proficient in the same subject, that doesn’t necessarily demonstrate growth because you’re not measuring the same group of kids.

“What student growth percentiles does is it takes into account the individual student, and it looks how that individual student performed the year before versus their peers that performed at the same level the year before across New Jersey,” Engravalle explained. “The numbers that you’re seeing [in the chart below] are the percentages of our pupils who performed better than their peers across New Jersey that had scored the same as them the previous year.”

Total Percentage of Pupils Demonstrating “High Growth” Measured Against Their Academic Peers in NJ (By Subject Area)

“This is really how you want to measure growth,” Engravalle said.

 Reward Schools fall under one of two possible categories: “highest-performing” or “highest-progress”—those like School No. 4 that show high levels of student growth based on median SGP over time.

Priority Schools, of which there were 75 in the state, are those identified as being among the lowest-performing, and Focus Schools, of which there were 183, are those in need of improvement “in areas that are specific to the school,” according to the DOE.

The majority of New Jersey’s 2,500 schools were not categorized as Priority, Focus or Reward Schools.

“We are entering a new age of school accountability in New Jersey, one that frees high-performing schools from state interference and defines a stronger investment from the state to turn around pockets of persistent academic failure,” said Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf in a statement. “No longer can we stand on the sidelines when our schools are not preparing students in New Jersey to graduate from high school ready for college and a career.”

For the complete list of Priority, Focus and Reward Schools in New Jersey, click here.