High schools fall short of NCLB standards Ocean Twp., Monmouth Regional miss yearly progress targets BY AMANDA BELING Staff Writer The state Department of Education (DOE) released data on how schools measure up to the No Child Left Behind standards that show two local high schools failed to achieve benchmarks set by the federal initiative. Eleventh-grade students in narrow sub groups at both Ocean Township High School and Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton Falls, failed to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2006, according to a report released by the DOE Aug. 16. According to the preliminary school improvement status summary, Ocean Township High School met 40 out of 41 indicators, missing AYP in only one of 10 subgroups, Students with Disabilities. According to the DOE, Ocean Township High School is currently in a Year 1 or Early Warning improvement status, which means that although the schools don't face sanctions under NCLB. "Though no action is required in this Early Warning stage, the school should take a look at what obstacles are in the way and decide on the best solution for helping the students," said Department of Education Spokesman Rich Vespucci. "Unfortunately, if you miss even by one subgroup, it will keep you off AYP, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any progress being made," he said. "The idea behind NCLB is that all subgroups in the United Sates will all make their scores by the year 2014," he added. "The law in general helps each subgroup of students because it requires schools to focus on each of them individually and not as just one whole group." According to the AYP status report, Monmouth Regional was in a Year 3 Hold status last year, which meant that the school was on the right track, but in order to achieve AYP, had to meet the benchmark target two years in a row. This year the regional high school is in Year 3 status again with students having met 39 out of 41 indicators, missing AYP by two out of 10 subgroups, Students with Disabilities and Economically Disadvantaged. The special education students (Students with Disabilities) did not make the mark in math, placing the school in Safe Harbor mode in language arts. "What this means is that though they didn't make the AYP benchmark, they had at least a 10 percent improvement in that subgroup. Being in Safe Harbor means your sanction can't get any worse than it is," said Vespucci. Students in the Economically Disadvantaged sub group missed the benchmark in math only. Students in this category qualify for reduced or free meals at school. "What goes along with it is that these kids don't always have the support at home that other students might have. They might have parents who work two jobs or they might be in a situation where they don't have access to things we take for granted like having a computer at home to surf the internet," said John Lysko, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Township of Ocean School District Being in Year 3 status means the school has to follow specific NCLB protocols. According to the DOE, a school in this status is in need of improvement and must provide Supplemental Education Services (SES) to its students, and must have a revised school improvement plan. "The supplemental education services are put together by the school and there has to be an approved vendor that would provide the service," said Vespucci. "These services are not part of the school day and may consist of tutoring and after-school classes students can attend, evening and or weekend classes or programs," he said. The federal government provides the school with funding for students who are underperforming on multiple levels in math and language arts called a Basic Skills Improvement Plan. "For the SES, the school must set aside 20 percent of this money every year they're in a Year 3 status," said Vespucci. He noted that the only downside is that the school can't force the students who need the help to participate. "The actual participation among these students might be lower, which means the cost won't be as high and the school can return the extra money to their general budget," said Vespucci. Monmouth Regional District Superintendent James Cleary declined to comment last week on the high school's AYP rating. Ocean Township Superintendent of Schools Thomas Pagano said that it is always a cause for concern when a subgroup doesn't make the benchmark, but that they did in fact make AYP the last two consecutive years at Ocean Township High School. "We've formulated a plan of action to address the needs of our special education (students with disabilities) students in math," said Pagano. Of the new math courses being offered this year, one of them is called Discreet Mathematics. "This class is to help meet the needs of the students whose math backgrounds aren't as solid," said Pagano. Lysko said that this particular class takes mathematical concepts and applies them to situations where data is collected and interpreted. "It's more of a hands-on class with more problem solving relating to real-life events," said Lysko. Pagano also noted that the high school has math labs where students receive individualized attention in conjunction with their regular class schedule. "We have a small percentage of classified students that can take the Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA)," said Pagano. This test is administered to those whose learning disabilities are on a higher level than the learning disabled students who can take the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) with the other subgroups. "What one special education student experiences is different from another," said Lysko. In deciding which students are classified as learning disabled, Vespucci noted that there are various factors involved in the process. "A child study team that consists of a school psychologist, a social worker and a learning disability teacher consultant will evaluate a student and decide how they are to be classified," he said. "Sometimes the parents will ask to have their son or daughter evaluated or a teacher will notice that a student is having difficulty reading or with math equations, and other times a student will go in with some concerns," said Lysko. "Our traditional underperforming groups are actually doing very well," he said. The percentage of students required to meet the proficiency targets in 2007 assessments was the same as those used in 2005 and 2006, but Lysko said that making the target benchmarks next year is going to be even more difficult. "The percentage for high school math will increase from 64 percent to 74 percent and the percentage for high school language arts will go from 79 percent to 85 percent," he said. "There are 41 indicators at the high school, but district-wide there were 205 indicators for us to make, and we only missed by one subgroup, which is not as large scale an issue as it might seem," he added. Because the Ocean Township School district did so well overall, Pagano said that it's not just going to be difficult with the benchmarks increasing, but that it will be much more difficult to improve in all the areas where they're doing so well in. Vespucci said that even when a school doesn't make AYP, there could still be significant signs of improvement within the scores. "Every year we have a new cohort of students with a whole new set of strengths and weaknesses, so it's challenging trying to meet new needs every year, but we always find a way to make improvements," he said. Lysko noted that some teachers have taken some time out of their summer to learn new mathematics techniques for the new school year. "Paul Lawrence, a well known specialist in mathematics teaching, came to our high school this week to teach our teachers," he said. In addition to improving the achievement of the subgroups, Lysko said that the targeted programs also help the other students. "We have a sustained and focused professional development program for our teachers that targets math and language arts," he said. Lysko noted that although AYP is important, it isn't what their kids are all about. "There is much more to these students than this test - there's a whole package that comes with every student we have," he said. "We take the action necessary to help our kids. If we do what we can to help them, then we're not leaving any child behind."