Administrators explain meaning of test results

Editor’s note: Due an error in the editing process, this article did not run in its entirety in the March 3 issue of the News Transcript. The article did run in its entirety at www.gmnews.com on March 3. Today, we are publishing the final paragraphs of the article, which deals with Marlboro High School being deemed a school in need of improvement based on the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Marlboro resident Jim Sage asked the Freehold Regional High School District administrators at the Feb. 22 meeting of the Board of Education if students who attend Marlboro High School would be given the option of transferring to another school in the FRHSD.

The No Child Left Behind Act offers that option to students who are attending a school that is deemed to be in need of improvement.

According to the New Jersey Department of Education, schools that receive federal Title I funds and do not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two years in a row in the same content area face sanctions that increase in severity each year that AYP is not achieved.

The sanctions include parental notification, intra-district school choice, the use of 20 percent of the school’s federal Title I money to provide tutoring to struggling students, school improvement plans and technical assistance from the district and the state.

Any of these schools that receive Title I funding must offer parents intra-district school choice at another school that did achieve AYP within the district. If choice is not available in the district, the school must offer supplemental educational services, such as tutoring, and develop and implement a school improvement plan.

Ellen Horowitz, the FRHSD’s administrative supervisor for student services, explained that Marlboro does not receive Title I money, which means those sanctions were not in place. Marlboro does not have enough economically disadvantaged students to qualify for Title I funds, she said.

The only schools in the district to receive that federal assistance are Colts Neck High School and Freehold High School, Freehold Borough.

District administrators highlighted the programs that are offered to help students study and prepare for the HSPA exam.

Students must pass the HSPA exam in order to graduate from high school.

Those programs include HSPA Saturdays when practice classes are held in February leading up to the test. There are also online programs and summer programs to help skill building.

Also, students in grades nine and 10 take a pre-HSPA test to help teachers and supervisors identify students’ weak points and develop individualized action plans.