NJ DOE Performance Report Doesn't "Show The Full Story," Says Lacey

LACEY, NJ — Every year, the New Jersey Department of Education releases their School Performance Report, which details how individual schools and their districts are performing. However, this report "doesn't show the full story," according to Lacey school officials, who gave their own performance report at a recent board of education meeting.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction William Zylinski and District Supervisor Tim Dowd gave a presentation of their own to show the work that Lacey students put in in the 2020-21 school year. Dowd reminded everyone that this was an unusual school year due to Covid, which affected results.

One thing Dowd highlighted was that ninth and tenth graders who take advanced placement classes are not counted in the state report, which only uses data from eleventh and twelfth graders. Lacey schools allow open enrollment, so students of any high school grade can take AP classes.

Dowd said that ninth graders at Lacey Township High School take AP World History, but are not shown in the report. Using this information, Dowd said that 46 percent of students scored a three or better on at least on AP exam. This data is not shown on the state report. There were 68 individual scores of three or better.

Dowd added that people need to use caution with comparing AP scores to previous and future years, due to the different circumstances in the past school year.

SAT scores are another metric that measures how well students are doing. The state report says that the average score is 1056, however, Dowd said this is only for twelfth graders. The eleventh and twelfth grade average is 1080, he said.

Most Ocean County schools have similar SAT scores, Dowd said, barring the two highest rated and the two lowest. Ocean County's twelfth grade average is 1093, and similar schools average 1073.

Some Lacey students also take college classes in high school, Dowd said. There was an error that AP classes were coded incorrectly to be listed as college credit with the state, he said. So not all of these students were shown in the state report.

Thirty-two students got their associate's degree at Ocean County College in high school through dual enrollment, and 100 earned college credit, Dowd said. He said not all of these students were reflected in the report.

The state report says that 17.7 percent of juniors and seniors are enrolled in at least one dual enrollment course, but including AP classes, the total comes to 28 percent, Dowd said.

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