Report Card: Glen Rock Schools Moving Forward

Kathy Regan, Glen Rock's director of curriculum and instruction, said that the district officials were happy this year’s results on the recently released state Department of Education School Report Card.

The annual School Report Card tracks No Child Left Behind requirements and requires accountability in everything from student-to-teacher ratios, to drop out rates, to testing scores and salaries statewide, disrictwide and in individual schools. According to the state DOE site, the purpose of report is to guarantee accountability and to track progress or lack thereof within schools.

Regan is a perfect example of how the district has a clear command of where the school district and students’ stand and where they are headed. 

“We were pleased with our math scores on elementary math,” said Regan, excitedly adding that 76 percent of fifth graders showed advanced proficiency in the subject.  “We’ve been working on a new math program and it showed.”

The district has impressive numbers when it comes to elementary and high school math.

The high school had a 50 percent advanced proficiency rate in math up from 45.9 percent in 2008-2009. The high school students increased the number of advanced proficiency students in language arts from 12.9 percent in 2008-2009 to 28.6 percent in 2009-2010.

Officials are working to improve the scores in middle school math and elementary writing.

All the elementary schools in the district made Adequate Yearly Progress, while the middle school and high school did not. But officials are armed with a plan.

Regan pointed out that middle school math scores could not really be addressed until elementary school scores were brought up. Otherwise the expectations are unfair to the students. Now that the elementary schools have risen students will be expected to pass algebra before entering high school.

“That’s adding much more rigor and we’re expecting to see a lot of improvement,” Regan said of the new requirement. “We’ll be working on that big time this year.”

The pre-engineering program for grades K-12 was also added two years ago. The STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program gives students a better understanding of science and math. 

Schools Superintendent David Verducci is very confident that Glen Rock will see even more improvements in the future.

“I want to make this a lighthouse district. I don’t want to be Ridgewood or Pascack Valley," said Verducci. "Those are all great places, but I want to be the district everyone else wants to be.”

“The next couple of years you’re going to see some huge jumps,” added Verducci, who does extensive analysis on the School Report Card Data and presents it to the community. At this point, the numbers serve only as a baseline and jumping off point for teachers, students and officials.

Another area Regan said would be focused on is language arts.

“We have instituted a very strong writing program that comes from research at Columbia University called Units of Study by Lucy Calkins.”

Regan said that selections of top mentor author texts are made as examples of exceptional writing.

“We are trying to hit all the different genres and touching on them,” said Regan. 

Rona McNabola, President of the Board of Education, said she was also pleased with the results.

“We’re going in the right direction,” said McNabola.

The specific programs being put into place in the district have a good chance of helping to move the district forward to where officials would like to be.

“There’s reason to celebrate and there is still reason to work hard and we are prepared to do that, “ Regan said. “But overall we’ve had forward movement.”