Mixed Results for Forrestdale on New State School Performance Report

When it comes to academics, the NJ School Performance Report places Rumson's Forrestdale School in a very high, the highest, category.

The school outperformed 91 percent of schools across the state in academics, a "very high" score, and 62 percent of the schools in its peer group, a "high" score.

The Academic Achievement category "measures the content knowledge students have in language arts literacy and math," according to the report. Forrestdale also shows that it is meeting 83 percent of its performance targets in the category.

College and Career Readiness showed Forrestdale at a high statewide rank, outpacing 76 percent of schools. Among peers, the school outpaced a lower 49 percent.

Most of the scores range from very high to average in rank.

However, when it comes to "student growth performance," the school rates as "lagging" behind its peer group of similar schools with coinciding demographics. In Monmouth County, those schools include Knollwood School in Fair Haven and Monmouth Beach and Shrewsbury Elementary schools.

Forrestdale, which educates students in grades four through eight, outpaced 56 percent of schools in this category across the state, which is average, and a much lower 31 percent of peer schools. The school, however, met 100 percent of its performance targets in student growth.

So, why the seemingly low score among peers? According to the report, proficiency in this category measures the performance of students "from one year to the next on the NJ Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) tests in Language Arts Literacy and Math when compared to students with a similar history of performance on NJ ASK."

According to the ASK scoring, Forrestdale, as a whole, has remained pretty much level from year to year, but at a high proficiency level.

For instance, in Language Arts, the advanced proficient levels have ranged from 20 to 32 percent in the last four years. However, 2011-12, the last year, showed the lowest rate of 20 percent. The percentage of students rating proficient is the highest, at 67 percent in 2011-12. And there were very few partially proficient scores.

Math advanced proficient scores have greatly outpaced language arts, with Forrestdale showing 45 percent at that rank in 2011-12, more than double language arts.

The lag in language arts scoring in both Rumson and Fair Haven schools has been a concern for which officials and parents have been trying to pinpoint a cause, such as evolving testing methods and/or curriculum, and remedy. It has been discussed at many board of education meetings in the past year.

Some have blamed it on technology taking the onus off of honing spelling, grammar and creativity skills, with spell checks, texting and the like.
For a breakdown of ASK score trends by grade, and further details about the other scores click here to view the entire presentation.

The school as a whole did not meet its No Child Left Behind progress target for Lanuage Arts Literacy, with a pass rate of 86.6 perent and a target of 89.7 percent.