Vo-Tech Earns Bronze Rank From U.S. News & World Report

The Somerset County Vocational & Technical High School received a bronze ranking through the U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best high schools in the state.

“The designation is a wonderful acknowledgement of the work we do with a diverse group of students,” said Chrys Harttraft, superintendent of the school. “We won a bronze medal of excellence this year and last, based on the exam scores of our students.”

Harttraft said the rankings are given by using three criteria, including overall student performance and disadvantaged student performance on language and math proficiency tests.

Harttraft said the focus for the school is on career and college readiness, which is not actually considered in the filtering of requirements for rankings. For example, she said, 5 percent of students are currently employed in their career of choice, 5 percent will receive an Associate College degree before receiving their diplomas and another 5 percent are earning college credits while attending the Vo-Tech.

These factors, Harttraft said, are not figured into the rankings.

“Although we are grateful to achieve this prestigious recognition, our focus is on career and college readiness,” she said. “Therefore areas where we excel are not considered in this filtering.”

Past the bronze recognition, Harttraft said, schools are filtered into silver and gold levels based on AP scores and other tests.

But because half of the population in the school is on shared time, Harttraft said, SAT scores for many students are counted by residence schools.

“That is further diminishing our aggregate SAT numbers,” she said. “We continue to be complemented by our bronze ranking since this is the best category to measure our academic prowess.”

Harttraft said this issue also occurs with the state’s performance report, which does not fully measure the student’s career readiness.

“However, I understand that they are working toward adding measures of success in this area,” she said.

The school, according to the state report card, did not meet its goals in terms of SATs, but did meet the target in terms of percentage of AP tests in which students scored a 3 or higher, with a schoolwide performance of 100 percent.

The school is in a peer group with other vocational schools around the state, and peer groups are determined by such factors as the number of students with free and reduced lunch, and the number of students in special education.

Harttraft said the school will be using new assessments in the future, so she doesn’t know if they will see the some comparisons in coming years.

“However, our instructional practice is changing, and we are making pivotal improvements linked to the core standards and more rigorous industry standards,” she said.

These changes, Harttraft said, will focus on interdisciplinary and other modifications.

“Our goal is to prepare students for both career and college postsecondary choices, which can be burdensome, unless we combine content areas through interdisciplinary approaches,” she said. “Our career and technical school is well positioned for these types of modifications.”