Some test scores show need for improvement
Changing socioeconomic factors drop Freehold’s district factor group
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

Results from the latest round of standardized tests given to Freehold Borough elementary school pupils show that the vast majority of the general student population scored from proficient to advanced proficient in subjects on all of the tests.

Cause for concern arises, however, when school administrators examine the results of students whose primary language is not English and who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

In a related issue, Superintendent of Schools Philip J. Meara noted that the borough’s District Factor Group (DFG) — a state designation that is an indicator of the socioeconomic status of citizens in a school district — has been lowered from a “CD” ranking to a “B.”

According to the scale of DFGs used by the state, “A” is the lowest DFG and “J” is the highest.

Meara told the News Transcript he believes the borough’s unique ethnic and cultural diversity — as compared to municipalities with homogeneous populations that surround the borough — is being used against the school district by state and national regulations.

The superintendent said school officials hold onto their community’s cultural diversity “as one of the best things about the town.”

In assessing the test scores Meara said the general student population performed well on the ASK-4 test.

The general student population are those students who are not classified as special education or limited English proficiency students.

He said 86.1 percent of the students who took the language arts test scored in the advanced proficient to proficient level and 69.6 percent of the students who took the math test scored in the advanced proficient to proficient level.

These were the highest scores received by borough students in five years, according to Meara.

The GEPA (eighth-graders) test showed that 88.8 percent of the students who took the language arts test scored in the advanced proficient or proficient levels and 76.4 percent of the students who took the math test scored in the advanced proficient or proficient levels. The language arts and math scores represent the highest level of achievement by students in five years, the superintendent said.

He said 84.3 percent of the students scored in the advanced proficient to proficient level in science, which is the second highest score in the past five years.

The Terra Nova test compares students to other youngsters around the nation. Overall, Meara said, the pupils in grades two through seven scored better than 70 percent of other children who took the test nationwide.

Areas of concern surfaced when the scores for the disaggregated groups in the schools were analyzed. The disaggregated groups include students who are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who receive special education services and who do not speak English as a primary language.

Meara said the areas of concern at the Freehold Intermediate School are the disaggregated groups that contain Hispanic students. He said the students’ test scores did not improve as much as state officials wanted them to.

Park Avenue Elementary School’s areas of concern were Hispanic students and pupils who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

According to Meara, the scores of pupils at the Freehold Learning Center were “OK.”

Meara noted that the fourth grade at the Park Avenue school has twice the number of economically disadvantaged children that the Freehold Learning Center on Dutch Lane Road does. While school administrators attempt to place children equally among the schools, he noted that the Board of Education allows parents the option of sending their elementary school children to the Park Avenue Elementary School or the Freehold Learning Center.

“We are trying to initiate steps to target these areas of concern,” Meara said, adding that bilingual remediation classes are one of the initiatives.

According to Meara, bilingual classes — in which pupils are taught in their native language — are currently in place in the sixth through eighth grades and in kindergarten through the second grade. Unfortunately, according to Meara, these programs do not reach the students who will be taking the fourth grade test this year.

The superintendent said teachers are making strides in teaching students to speak English, but are having a difficult time teaching them how to learn in English.

“The students have learned to understand and converse in English, but they are not ready to be tested on major content subjects like math and language arts,” Meara said.

Because of these facts, Meara believes the bilingual programs will eventually be effective in helping children to reach the expected goals. Children are learning basic content subjects in their native language with some English integrated into the classes in the morning and receiving instruction in other subjects in English in the afternoon, according to Meara.

The fact that Freehold Borough is now classified as a “B” DFG has prompted studies on ethnic breakdowns in the school district and surrounding districts for comparison, which is in the process of being compiled now.

According to state Department of Education classifications based on the 2000 census, nearby elementary school districts have the following DFG designations: Colts Neck, “I,” Freehold Township, “G/H,” Howell, “F/G,” Manalapan-Englishtown Regional, “G/H,” Marlboro, “I,” and Farmingdale, “D/E.”

Meara said these districts do not have disaggregated groups like the borough’s school district does. He said the Freehold Borough school district presently has the following enrollment: 33 percent white pupils, 46 percent Hispanic pupils, 17 percent black pupils and 4 percent Asian or other pupils

The superintendent said school administrators are concerned about regional contribution agreements (RCA) Freehold Borough officials have entered into with surrounding towns. The agreements permit developing municipalities to transfer part of their state-mandated obligation to build affordable housing to a community like the borough, which receives the money and uses it to rehabilitate existing substandard housing.

“[The surrounding towns] sell us their fair share housing obligations,” Meara said. “Freehold has received $8 million from surrounding municipalities over the last 10 years. The problem is that the law does not allow the schools to any of this money. The issue is that we get the kids here. Other districts don’t. They pay us to take the economically disadvantaged children and statistics show that economically disadvantaged children do not do as well on tests.”

He called the issue a “ vicious circle” and said the law does not permit school districts to receive any of the funds that the RCA delivers to the borough.

Another factor Meara sees as being responsible for test scores is that students in the disaggregated groups end up being counted in several groups, impacting the scores even further.

For example, he noted that in the English Language Learners (ELL) 19 of the 20 Hispanic students were also counted in two other groups. The same is true of the special education group where, he said, 19 of the 27 pupils were also counted in two other groups.

Meara said it is possible that one child’s test scores could be the reason why a school is said to be needing improvement among several groups of students.

He said the test scores pointed out what school administrators already knew.

“I think what this says is that for the money we spend per pupil and for our DFG, we are performing above the state’s expectations with less cost to the local taxpayer and that’s a good thing,” Meara said. “The challenge, of course, is to do it better.”

As far as funding goes, being designated as a “B” DFG does not necessarily mean borough schools will receive additional money from the state. The district has received $105,862 in helping aid from a Higher Expectations for Learning Proficiency Award as well as $42,840 from the Above Average Enrollment Growth Award.

In addition to the bilingual programs, Meara said a new inclusion program for special education students is in the process of being developed.

Meara said special education pupils are subject to the same performance standards as all other pupils, therefore they need to be integrated into programs with the other pupils. He said he will provide whatever resources students need in order to do this.

Meara reiterated his belief that Freehold Borough’s diversity is now being used against the school district.

“Our question is this,” Meara said. “Are [state and federal officials] telling us that it would be better to be less diverse? Our scores might be better, but would we be better off as a community? I think not.”