News from the BOE

What's that? You didn't watch tonight's meeting on webcast or on Cablevision Channel 77? Here's a little bit of what we covered:

Dr. Fishbein presented the Opening of School Report, the key fact of which was how much the District's enrollment has grown since last year.

Enrollment Figures as of 9/10/10*
(9/09 figures are in parentheses)

Glen (36) 44 +8
Hawes (408) 409 +1
Orchard (323) 340 +17
Ridge (478) 496 +18
Somerville (533) 540 +7
Travell (410) 408 -2
Willard (456) 501 +45
TOTAL ELEMENTARY (2,644) 2738 +94

BFMS (687) 694 +7
GWMS (675) 693 +18
TOTAL MIDDLE SCHOOL (1,362) 1387 +25

RHS (1,666) 1692 +26

Total Enrollment (5672) 5817 +145

*These numbers can be expected to change a little still, as families who moved away are removed from the rolls.

Also at last night's meeting, Dr. Fishbein recognized Jane Blakely, who was the recipient of the 2010 Ashby Award for her contributions to Ridgewood High School over the past 26 years.

Michele Lenhard read a list of all donors to the Ridgewood Public Schools for the 2009-10 year. It's a long list (maybe I'll post it here later), but the total was $546,695. That's amazing! Thank you, Ridgewood!

The Board's new Student Representative, Max Z., reported on the opening of the high school. Bottom line: the new lockers are a big hit.

We had a great presentation from our architect, engineer, and construction managers on the status of various referendum and capital projects throughout the District. The detailed report, complete with photos, amounts spent and percent complete, will be posted on the website, hopefully tomorrow. I'll post a link when it's there.

Business Administrator Angelo DeSimone presented the reorganization of the IT (formerly MIS) Department and described some of the many projects that department has been busy with all summer. Right now, the big effort is in getting all students and families set-up in Skyward, the new student information system. There were some "glitches" with the initial mailing of instructional letters to parents: apparently there were old, out-of-date address still existing in the old SASI system, and they were mistakenly imported into Skyward. So about 250-300 letters were unable to be delivered, and those parents are having to correct their information (and prove residency, if their address has changed). It's definitely a lot of work for everyone (including parents), but they are working through it and the system is going to be a huge improvement once it's all in place.

Mr. DeSimone also spoke about many hardware projects completed or currently underway, including replacing 350+ computers and upgrading our wireless internet service. When it's complete, there will be full wireless service in every school -- no more hot spots or dead zones. And, I was glad to hear that students will be able to access the internet eventually, once they can install good firewalls that can't be hacked, with students trying to get in and change grades, etc. Full wireless access in our schools -- especially the high school -- will be a great step forward in terms of our students' connected learning.

Sheila Brogan gave a legislative update, and said the Obama administration has announced a third round of Race to the Top grants -- will the third time be the charm for New Jersey?

Finally, Regina Botsford reported that, while we are waiting for official scores, it appears that Hawes Special Ed students may not have met AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) in Language Arts, which would place Hawes on the "Early Warning List." I'll write more in the next few days about what this means, but it appears we will have plenty of company from some very high performing districts. (The last time Ridgewood had a school on the Early Warning List was RHS in 2005-06, again due to special ed students' scores in Language Arts). More to come on this...

Test Scores

The NJ state Board of Education recently changed the so-called "cut scores" for proficiency and advanced proficiency in grades 5-8, in language arts and math. Before the change, a score of 33%-46% was considered "proficient." The new cutoffs are:

6th Grade Language Arts: 53% = Proficient; 76% = Advanced Proficient

6th Grade Math: 50% = Proficient; 82% = Advanced Proficient

8th Grade Language Arts: 55% = Proficient; 74% = Advanced Proficient

8th Grade Math: 50% = Proficient; 77% = Advanced Proficient

These new cutoffs will be applied to the tests that were taken last spring.

So...I have several thoughts about this. The first one is surprise that a score of 33% on any test could be described as "proficient" in that subject. Really? So, following this logic, 47% was called "advanced proficient." And then what...does that mean, say, 60% would be considered "perfect?"

I don't know the history of how these scores and labels were developed, but it reminds me of Starbucks' marketing...you know, where "Tall" is the smallest drink? 

It's frustrating for parents and community members (and this BOE member) to learn about the low cut-offs, and I have to say it does seem to be a good move to raise the cutoffs. Honestly, does it seem crazy to expect "proficient" to mean 50% or more? Not to me. I think it will help us have a much more realistic picture of how our students are doing, how well they are actually learning.

HOWEVER, you realize what this means, right? When Ridgewood gets its scores for grades 5-8 testing from last spring, many students who would have scored "proficient" under the previous system will now miss the cutoff. Same thing for Advanced Proficient. Bottom line, even though our students' numerical scores (and their actual performance) may have improved, our numbers of proficient and advanced proficient will go down. This will upset some people -- even though it should not. All of the first scores using the new system will be like re-setting the gauge. It makes it harder for us to compare this year's performance to last, but it doesn't affect our ability to compare our students' performance to that of other districts. Also (and this is the state's stated reason for the change), we should be able to better identify those students who need help. Perhaps any student who falls from Proficient to Partial Proficient should immediately be given some sort of remedial or special attention.

Statewide, there are concerns that some groups and some schools will not make AYP in the No Child Left Behind sweepstakes. I'm sure that will happen...and then those schools will be punished...even though students' actual performance may have improved. Maybe  the NCLB police will take this into consideration. In any event, it will definitely add to the NCLB drama.

It's too bad the only scores the district gets are these "proficient" or "advanced proficient" numbers. I wonder if there is any way to get the actual numbers, the actual scores. That would allow us to track our own students more carefully. Even better, wouldn't it be great if we could get test scores broken down into smaller areas, for example, in addition to an overall "math" score, how about scores for geometry vs. algebra...or calculations vs. word problems? Then we'd REALLY know how our instructional programs are doing. I think I'm getting a little carried away and I can already guess the answer, but I'll see what I can find out about this.

In the meantime, we'll wait for our Grades 5-8 scores to come in and see where this new rating system gets us.