Galloway Superintendent Believes New Designations For Galloway More Accurate Than NCLB

Galloway Superintendent of Schools Dr. Annette Giaquinto believes none of the schools in the will be placed on the “Priority Schools” or “Focus Schools” lists following the federal government’s decision to include New Jersey among the that frees it from the rules of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

“To me, this is a more accurate assessment of our district than the prior NCLB label of ‘school or district in need of improvement,’” Giaquinto said via email Friday morning, Feb. 10, one day after the announcement was made.

The new system separates schools into three groups: "Priority Schools," which will be chosen from the lowest performing five percent of Title I schools statewide; "Focus Schools," which will be chosen from at least 10 percent of Title I schools; and "Reward Schools," or those schools that demonstrate high student performance, or are making progress in closing achievement gaps between student groups, according to the release.

Although the schools will be identified during the summer, with interventions to begin during the 2012-13 school year, Galloway doesn’t fall into any of the three designated categories.

“We are also not on the reward list and will certainly review the achievement it takes to become a reward school and work toward that goal,” Giaquinto said.

According to Giaquinto, the district was placed on the “district in need of improvement” list under the old system because of New Jersey Assessment of Knowledge (NJASK) testing scores. School districts were placed on this list if they didn’t show Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in NJASK testing for two consecutive years.

The district’s NJASK testing scores for the last three years and how they compare with the state average can be found

The goal of NCLB was to have 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Giaquinto assured those goals were not needed to motivate the school district.

“With or without government designations, our district continually strives to assess and improvement our instructional practices and programs as they relate to student achievement,” Giaquinto stated.