District on No Child Left Behind list for 2nd year
If scores don’t improve, state could appoint trustee to run district
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The city was listed last week as one of the state’s Districts In Need of Improvement (DINI), and the superintendent of schools said improving the district test scores has been an on-going process.

“We saw a little improvement in scores this year from last year in a couple of areas, but some areas were flat,” Joseph M. Ferraina said Monday.

“But we feel comfortable that we are headed in the right direction. We only work one student at a time and we do the best we can for every child.”

Long Branch appeared on the state Department of Education (DOE) list of 63 school districts that were designated DINI based on their students’ 2005 test results as calculated under a formula established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Districts were judged solely on whether the aggregated test scores of the students tested in each grade in all schools within the district attained the necessary proficiency levels to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two consecutive years in both language arts literacy and mathematics, according to a DOE press release.

The standards for NCLB are progressive, and are raised each year. The final goal of NCLB is for each school in the country to have reached 100 percent proficiency in standardized testing by 2014.

Long Branch has been designated DINI for the second year in a row and if the district does not make AYP in 2006, NCLB mandates that more severe sanctions be imposed, DOE spokesman Ronald Rice said.

According to Rice, these sanctions could include any of the following;

• Individual schools could be removed from the district;

• Receivers or trustees could be appointed to administer the affairs of the district;

• Parents could be offered the choice of sending their children to schools in other districts;

• The district itself could be restructured or abolished; and

• Possible loss of any federal funding.

But Ferraina said he is confident that his district will make AYP next year.

“We are going in the right direction,” he said. “We now have a preschool and we have designed our schools to have small learning communities.”

In the school buildings, each grade will be given their own floor, which allows for small learning communities, according to Ferraina.

“This process did not just start today,” Ferraina said. “We have a dedicated staff that is working to help each of our students.”