Superintendent Responds to Ranking: 'The High School is a Much Different Place'

The Hoboken High School has gotten better , said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Toback in a phone interview on Wednesday.

NJ Monhtly released its new rankings—based on data from the 2010-2011 school year—on Tuesday and Hoboken High dropped significantly since the last time the study was done.

Whereas in 2010 Hoboken was number 187 out of 328, this time around Hoboken High comes in at number 298.

"Things have changed," Toback said. "The Hoboken High School represented (in the ranking) isn't the high school that exists today."

Some things changed since the 2010-2011 school year, Toback said. For example, the school now offers Advanced Placement classes. Toback started his tenure as Hoboken's superintendent at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

Toback said also that test scores have gotten better since two years ago. Back then, Toback said, not all the students were tested because so-called "retained tenth graders" weren't being tested. Now, Toback continued, all students are being tested.

The 2010-2011 school year was also the first year in which the students from the alternative high school—Demarest—were incorporated into the high school.

That may also have affected the overall performance, Toback said.

Mostly, though, Toback said he is looking ahead.

"I am concerned about making the school a better place now," he said. "We have made progress with our graduation rate." (The High School's graduation is one percentage point behind the state average, Toback said)

"The high school is a much different place," Toback said. But, he added, "we have a lot of work to do in the upcoming year."