NJ Monthly Ranks Collingswood 262 of 323 Public High Schools

Sterling, Triton, Highland, Met East, Camden, Winslow Township, Woodrow Wilson, Pennsauken.

Those are the only other public high schools in Camden County ahead of which is ranked in a new report from New Jersey Monthly. Three of them are in Camden City.

At 262 of 328, Collingswood actually climbed five spots from its 2011 ranking (267). Comparatively, only two Camden County schools broke the top 50 (Haddonfield at 33 and Haddon Township at 50), with only another breaking the top 100 (Cherry Hill East at 98).

Here are the individual statistics collected for Collingswood in the rankings.

Grade 12 Enrollment: 217 students
Average Class Size: 20.8
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 12.6 to 1
Faculty with Masters or Doctorate Degrees: 48.5%
Average Combined SAT scores: 1433
Advanced Proficient-Language HSPA Scores: 11.4%
Advanced Proficient-Math HSPA Scores: 16.1
AP Exams Offered: 8
AP Exam Scores of 3 or Better: 42.3%
Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate: 86.55

To give an example of the gap between CHS and the top academic performer in the county, Haddonfield Memorial High School, in the 2010-11 school year, here are the figures for HMHS:

Grade 12 Enrollment: 210 students
Average Class Size: 19.9
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 11.1 to 1
Faculty with Masters or Doctorate Degrees: 45.1%
Average Combined SAT scores: 1714
Advanced Proficient-Language HSPA Scores: 62.9%
Advanced Proficient-Math HSPA Scores: 65.4
AP Exams Offered: 20
AP Exam Scores of 3 or Better: 90.1%
Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate: 97.24

The two schools are comparatively sized, and Collingswood even holds a slight edge in terms of its percentage of advanced-degreed instructors.

In terms of both advanced curriculum and standardized proficiency metrics, however, Collingswood is far off the pace. Haddonfield students are also graduating at an almost 10 percent better rate, and scoring nearly 300 points higher on their SAT exams.

Some work is being done in the district to mitigate these factors, including the incorporation of , , and the establishment of .

Earlier this year, Collingswood curriculum director Thomas Anderson, now retired, :

According to Anderson, the Collingswood school district has “a great variability in achievement levels because we don’t group our students by ability.”

Furthermore, he says, year-over-year comparisons of the test results are counterintuitive because they judge current-year students against those in prior classes instead of seeing whether the same groups of children improved over time.

Anderson also said that parents should be less concerned with standardized testing scores and more on their actual gains in the classroom.

“You have to be careful of these one-shot assessments,” Anderson said. “We probably have more variability than many districts because we bring in kids from all over. We have many different types of children.”

Methodology

The rankings were generated based on information reported in the New Jersey School Report Card, which is published by the state Department of Education. Research firm Leflein Associates analyzed the data in compiling its rankings along three factor groups:

School Environment: The sum of standardized rank scores for average class size, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of faculty with advanced degrees, and the number of AP tests offered (calculated as a ratio of grade 11 and 12 enrollment in order not to penalize smaller schools).

Student Performance: The sum of the standardized rank scores for average combined SAT score, percentage of “advanced proficient” students as ranked by HSPA, and students scoring a 3 or higher on AP tests as a percentage of all juniors and seniors.

Student Outcomes: A single score based on a new graduation rate calculation (four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate) introduced by New Jersey in 2011, as mandated by the federal government.

The Student Performance and Student Outcome categories were weighted at 1.5 times their scores in this calculation, whereas School Environment was only given a weight of 1. The final rankings were determined by tallying these numbers together.

Countywide Rankings

Camden County Public High Schools (2010-11)
as ranked by New Jersey Monthly

Haddonfield – 33
Haddon Township – 50
Cherry Hill East – 98
Eastern – 113
Cherry Hill West – 146
Audubon – 147
Haddon Heights – 151
Lindenwold – 196
Brimm Medical Arts – 207
Timber Creek – 246
Overbrook – 253
Collingswood – 262
Sterling – 266
Triton – 271
Highland – 284
Met East – 285
Camden – 287
Winslow Township – 299
Woodrow Wilson – 300
Pennsauken – 310