Students in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district once again have performed extremely well on statewide proficiency tests, and the district itself seems to be in good shape overall according to school report cards, which were released earlier this month by the state Department of Education.##M:[more]##
But district officials are even more pleased with the increase in the number of students who achieved advanced proficiency on those assessments, said Steven Mayer, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
“Our overall proficiency number tends to stay around the same region” every year, said Mayer. “We were in the mid 90s pretty much year after year. That number really is interesting to us. We’d love that to be 100 percent.”
He pointed to the advanced proficiency levels, however, which he said were usually in the high 20s or 25 to 30 percentiles. “Now, we’re hitting numbers closer to 40 percent.”
The 2006-07 proficiency scores, which are listed on the school report card for each school, assess students in grades three through eight and those taking the High School Proficiency Assessments in grade 11.
Compared with other districts in the same economic factor group around the state, in most cases, West Windsor-Plainsboro students seem to surpass or be on par with students from other districts like them.
The district factor groups are created by the state, which places districts into groups based on their demographic factors. West Windsor-Plainsboro schools are part of the J group, which includes the state’s richest districts. Aside from West-Windsor Plainsboro, another J district in the area is Montgomery. Princeton is ranked a step lower, at IJ. Mayer says that the rankings are based on factors including property values, and that West Windsor-Plainsboro’s schools have been listed in the J groups for a few years now. “It was an IJ for a while before it shifted over to J,” he said.
In terms of proficiency scores, at the elementary school level, 75.7 percent of third graders in the district were proficient in language arts, and 21 percent reached advanced proficiency, a large jump from the 8.2 percent who reached advanced proficiency the year before. In math, 37.5 percent of third graders were proficient district-wide, and 59 percent were advanced. All together, that means that about 97 percent of students are proficient or advanced in both language arts and math.
Advanced proficiency also increased in the fourth grade, where 77 percent tested were proficient in language arts, with 16.2 percent reaching advanced levels. That’s up from 8.9 percent who tested advanced the year before. In math, 28.1 percent were proficient, and 67 percent were advanced, also an increase. About 27.3 percent of fourth graders were proficient in science, and 68.6 percent reached advanced proficiency, up from 52 percent in 2005-06.
In the fifth grade, 72.2 percent were proficient in language arts and 41.5 percent were proficient in math. About 25 percent of students were advanced in language arts, and 51.5 percent were advanced in math, both of which were also slight increases from the year before.
The percentage of third, fourth, and fifth graders testing advanced in these subject areas was on par with the percentage overall of students statewide in the J districts who tested advanced, although usually, the percentage of West Windsor-Plainsboro students testing advanced was slightly above the statewide percentages.
At the middle school level, about 61 percent of sixth graders tested proficient in language arts, while 33.8 percent were advanced, up from 29 percent last year. In math, about 47 percent tested proficient, with 46.8 percent of those tested reaching advanced proficiency.
Out of the seventh graders, 51.8 percent were proficient and 43.8 percent tested advanced in language arts literacy. That’s up from 30 percent testing advanced in 2005-06. In math, 41.6 percent of seventh graders were proficient. And 46.5 percent of them were advanced.
About 57 percent of eight graders were proficient in language arts, with 38 percent at advanced proficiency. That’s up from 24 percent who tested advanced the year before. In math, 31.5 percent tested proficient, and 60.7 tested advanced, up from 54.5 the year before. In science, 39.6 percent of eighth graders were proficient, and 57 percent were advanced, up from 48.7 percent the year before.
In all cases, a higher percentage of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders tested advanced in math, science, and language arts compared with other J districts. Some percentages were just slightly above the advanced proficiency average compared with other J schools, but in others, the difference was drastic. For example, 43.8 percent of the district’s seventh graders tested advanced in language arts, while state-wide, 28 percent of students in J districts tested advanced.
Mayer says the district’s advanced proficiency levels have increased because its approach to testing is “really a long-term approach. A lot of districts will do short-term, quick fix thing like test preparation. We don’t do that. We look at what the heart of the test is about and alter our curriculum.” Said Mayer: “We prepare them well not just for those tests, but prepare them for success in each of those” categories.
At the high school level, about 58 percent of students tested proficient in language arts, and 39 percent tested proficient in math, both of which increased over the previous year. The percentage of students testing advanced in those subjects did decrease, however, to 39.2 percent in language arts and 55.4 percent in math, down from 47.7 percent and 60.2 percent, respectively. In science, the percentage of students who tested proficient was 61.1 percent, with 32.2 testing advanced.
Averages for students testing at advanced proficiency were around the same as the statewide percentages for J districts.
Also at the high school level in 2006-07, about 416 students took the SATs at High School South, and 331 took the SATs at High School North. High School South had the higher average score in math, with students averaging 618 in the mathematics portion of the test. The average SAT score in math for High School North students was 599. In the verbal portion of the SATS, High School South students averaged 590, while High School North students averaged 572. And in the written portion, High School South students averaged a score of 590, and High School North students averaged a score of 571. In most cases, the SAT scores were above the average SAT scores for other J districts.
Performing at the same level or above comparable districts is what the district values most, Mayer said. He said administrators will continue to focus on improving literacy through the system and on its special education programs.
Aside from test scores, the district’s per pupil spending, according to the report cards, shows it is almost on par with the state average, with the comparative cost per pupil at West Windsor-Plainsboro schools at $12,”153, compared with the state average of $12,”150.
In other news, New Jersey Monthly, in its February issue, released its rankings of the top high schools in the state. It ranked High School South ninth, above Princeton, which ranked 13th. High School North ranked 18th. Montgomery was ranked fourth.
