Paramus School Leader Addresses High School Ranking Decline

Schools Superintendent Ken Rota anticipates Paramus High School’s recent drop in the New Jersey Monthly top high schools ranking is only temporary.

Rota offered various reasons to the Board of Education this week for why the high school dropped off the Top 100 public high schools list this year. 

He explained one reason may be based on student performance due to some decline in test scores in the 2010-2011 year. Also it is believed that a change to the way the rankings are determined contributed as well, he said.

The list, which was published in August, showed Paramus High School dropped from 98 down to 113. New Jersey Monthly uses data released by the state Department of Education’s annual school report card.  The current ranking is based on the 2010-2011 school report card.

Rota says there were some decreases in test scores for the 2010-2011 school year such as with the SATs. Also there was a slight drop in the amount of students scoring advanced proficiency in language arts and math that year which could have been another factor, he said.

The superintendent also pointed out that a change to the way school environment factors are weighed could have contributed. He explained there was a greater weight put on class size and Paramus High School had a slight increase from 21.4 to 23.9 that school year.

Rota said provided the indicators remain the same next time around a higher ranking is anticipated for Paramus High School the next time this list is published.

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