State Report Card Shows Improvement in Tinton Falls’ Scores

The grades are in and the report cards have been issued. The New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) School Report Card for Tinton Falls schools show the majority of the grades from 3 to 8 scored above or equal to the state, and in some cases there were impressive gains in test scores.

Each year, the DOE releases the annual report cards, which contain statistical profiles for every school in the following areas: school environment, student information, student performance indicators, staff information and district and charter financial information. The report cards are issued for all elementary and secondary schools, vocational schools, special education schools, and charter schools.

An overview of the scores of the NJASK shows that the Tinton Falls school district shown gains in numerous areas. On the aggregate, there was an increase in advanced proficient scores and decrease in partially proficient scores, which show the students are improving. Each school's percentages can be viewed at njSpotlight.com. A breakdown of the three schools in Tinton Falls is as follows:

Mahala F. Atchison School: The language arts section of the NJASK score breakdown for 2009-10 was: partial proficient, 31.4 percent, proficient, 58.6 percent, and advanced proficient, 9.9 percent. Those are higher than the school’s performance last year, and much better than the state averages. One interesting note is that the number of students who scored advanced proficient rose from last year’s 4.1 percent to this year’s 9.9 percent—a healthy jump and better than the 5.6 percent showing in the state average.

students also scored higher than the previous year in math, and above the state-level scores. Students from the school showed that 15.7 percent were partially proficient, 36.6 percent were proficient, and 47.6 percent were advanced proficient. Those were better than the previous year’s scores that showed 19.5 percent were partially proficient, 37.4 percent were proficient, and 43.1 percent were advanced proficient.

Swimming River School: A look at the NJASK4 scores show that also scored higher than last year’s report, with the advanced proficient percentage increasing as well. For 2009-10, the breakdown is as follows: partial proficient, 26 percent, proficient 63 percent, and advanced proficient, 10.9 percent. Those numbers for 2009 were partial proficient, 29.5 percent; proficient, 63 percent; and advanced proficient, 7.2 percent. More students scored in the advanced proficient level this year compared to last, and the number of students who were partially proficient dropped—a step in the right direction.

The fourth grade math scores surged from last year to this year for Swimming River. Advanced proficient scores rose from 24.7 percent in 2009-10 to 40.2 percent. The number of students who were partially proficient in 2009 improved this year by 7.2 percentage points.

Tinton Falls Middle School: scored higher than the state average in language arts, with 70.4 percent scoring proficient, compared to 57.9 percent in state. Sixth graders also scored higher in math, with 54.5 percent students scoring proficient, while the state average was 48.5 percent.

Seventh grade students' scores in language arts dropped from the previous year, to 56.6 percent for 2009-10 from 63.6 percent for 2008-09 year, but is still a better showing for the state, whose average stood at 51.9 percent in proficiency for 2009-10.  Eighth-graders at the school also scored higher in math and language arts than the state averages, and in language arts and science, scores were much higher than the state averages.