Absegami's Academic Achievements About Average Compared to the Rest of the State

Absegami High School is about average when compared to the rest of the schools in the State of New Jersey and performs very high when compared to the other 30 schools in its peer group, according to the School Performance Report released this week by Gov. Chris Christie’s office.

The report issued this week replaces the outdated school report cards, the Christie Administration said. Reports now include data on college and career readiness, and place schools into peer groups. Absegami is about average among schools in the state and above average in its peer group in this area, as well.

Absegami outperforms 84 percent of the schools in its peer group and 52 percent of schools in the state in academic achievement. In college and career readiness, it outperforms 73 percent of the schools in its peer group and 45 percent of the schools in the state.

Absegami is the only Atlantic County school in its peer group, which includes four schools from Bergen County, two from Camden County, three from Essex County, one from Gloucester County, two from Hudson County, three from Mercer County, four from Middlesex County, one from Morris County, three from Ocean County, two from Somerset County and one from Union County.

The group was assembled based on similar grade configurations, students with similar demographic characteristics such as free/reduced lunch eligibility, limited English proficiency or special education program participation.

Comparison is made through Propensity Score Matching, an established statistical technique that helps to construct comparison groups from data observed outside of research testing.

The school hits the targets for all No Child Left Behind (NCLB) literacy schoolwide and in all applicable ethnic areas. Students are 96 percent proficient in Language Arts, compared to 54 percent in the state and 87 percent in its peer group. In Math, students are 87 percent proficient, compared to 49 in the state and an average of 81 percent for schools in its peer group. Absegami has a schoolwide passing rate of 87 percent in Math.

Twelve percent of Absegami students are advanced in Biology, while 46 are proficient and 42 are partially proficient.

The school’s graduation rate is 88.5 percent, compared to a state average of 36 percent and 68 percent among its peer schools. Of graduating students, 74 percent enrol in post secondary schooling, including college or trade schools.

Vocational schools were not included in the report, but there is no standard definition or data collection for other types of screened schools or schools that are open enrolment throughout the state, all other schools in those categories remain in the peer comparison this first year. 

The reports were a collaborative effort between stakeholders across the state in both informal conversations and through a workgroup that included representatives from the NJEA, New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA), New Jersey Association of School Administrators (NJASA), New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) and the New Jersey Parent Teacher Association (NJPTA). The group met over a period of four months.

“These new school performance reports were developed with the input of stakeholders across the state and provide a significant amount of new data to present a more complete picture of school performance,” New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said. “We hope this data will help schools and stakeholders engage in local goal setting and improvement to help all students graduate from high school ready for college and career.”

 “While the evaluation of student outcome data is crucial for school improvement, we know that these data alone cannot capture the dozens of other essential elements of schools such as a positive school climate, participation in extracurricular programs and the development of non-cognitive skills,” NJDOE Chief Performance Office Bari Erlichson said. “However, by focusing on college and career readiness and including meaningful comparisons for schools, we hope that these new reports will inform conversations at the local level about where schools are doing well and where they can continue to improve.”

A report on the Galloway Township K-8 school district’s results will appear next week on Galloway Patch.

The full report for all schools in the state can be found here.