District: We Are Working to Prepare HS Students for SAT

Jefferson is working with students at the high school level to get them better prepared for SAT testing, director of curriculum and instruction Dr. Mary Thornton said.

"We are working with all the underclassmen to be sure they take the PSAT, so they can get a look at what the SAT will be like," she said.

Teachers are also working with the students in the classroom to prepare them for the college entrance exam.

"Several days a week, the teachers will do writing, or give some type of instruction in class to work prepare the students for the SAT, she said. "We are also doing a vocabulary word a day with the students, and, of course, these are all words that they could run into on the SAT test."

The district also sends home extra packets of test-like work for the students to complete.

Jefferson currently lags below state average in the area of mean SAT scores, as shown in the chart below.

2009-2010

No. of Students Taking Test

Math
Average Score

Verbal Average Score

Essay
Average Score

School

196

502

482

478

DFG

13712

540

512

516

State

65337

520

497

499

 In most other areas, Jefferson is a high-performing district, according to reports cards released by the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) on Tuesday. The district performed above average in most areas of state standardized testing. For more on that story, clic.

For example, more than 90% of students at the high school who took the HSPA test are proficient in both language arts and math. Close to 90% of eighth grade students are proficient in language arts, nearly 75% are proficient in math, and 94% are proficient in science.

Jefferson also consistently comes in over the state average for daily attendance at school, finishing at about 95% at every school, while state averages stand at about 94%.

The graduation rate from Jefferson High School was 96.2%, greater than the state average of 94.7%.

District spending per pupil is at $14,708, about $800 below the state average of $15,538. Teaching salaries, at $54,400, are below the state average of $61,840. However, administrative salaries run above state average, with the district at $119,241 and the state average running at $117,895.