State: All Freehold schools meet achievement standards

FREEHOLD - The Freehold Borough K-8 School District received good news last week.

According to a press release, administrators were notified by theNew Jersey Department of Education that all three of the district's schools have achieved the benchmarks forAdequate Yearly Progress (AYP), or safe harbor, as required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The district's schools are the Freehold Learning Center elementary school, the ParkAvenue Elementary School and the Freehold Intermediate School.

Previously, the department incorrectly identified the Park Avenue Elementary School as not makingAYP in the special education subgroup in language arts literacy. However, this status was changed after a rescore of state assessments.

The Park Avenue Elementary School, like the Freehold Learning Center and the Freehold Intermediate School, made all 41 out of 41 indicators for student achievement and attendance, according to district officials.

School administrators said this news marks unprecedented growth in student achievement in the Freehold Borough School District.

While the average achievement growth in math and language arts literacy is between approximately 0 and 2 percent for each District Factor Group (New Jersey Department of Education assessment scores 2002-2007), the Freehold Borough School District (total population and subgroups) have demonstrated growth well above this number since 2006, according to the press release.

A school district's District Factor Group compares districts that are alike based on various socioeconomic factors.

Most notable about the news, according

to Freehold Borough administrators, is that the students' performance

has been achieved without

adequately funded

budgets or the essential

resources needed. In

2007, the district cut numerous

teaching and

support positions, as well

as a math supervisor.

Administrators said the school district expects to continue its growth in student achievement in mathematics, science and language arts literacy.

Most recently, the school district has retooled its entiremathematics and language arts literacy curriculums, developed a new professional development model that targets individual teacher and school needs, written grants to address student needs in area such as literacy and technology, and focused on research-based initiatives that are appropriate for all children.

The information about the students' test achievements was provided by Thomas W. Tramaglini, the district's director of technology and assessment, and director of math, science, professional development and the program for gifted and talented pupils.