Paramus SAT Scores Below Peer Average, Beats State Target, Report Says

Paramus High School scored lower than its average peers on SATs last year but its composite score came in above the state's target, according to figures released by the state Department of Education this week.

Paramus achieved a total composite score of 1578 which is lower than the peer average of 1616, however it is above the state's target of 1550.

Released Wednesday, the reports are a new version of the long-running School Reports Cards that have measured school performance on a variety of metrics since the 1990s.

The new reports use many of the same sources of data like student achievement, graduation and dropout rates, demographics and class sizes, but they also match each school up with 30 peer schools from across the state. Previously used district factor groups have been done away with.

Schools are matched based on demographics, percentage of low-income students, percentage of special needs students and percentage of limited English-speaking students.

Once matched, schools are compared to their peers and with state targets.

Other high schools in Bergen which fall into the same peer group as Paramus High School are Emerson, Mahwah, Ramsey, River Dell Regional, Waldwick and Westwood.

View the chart below to see how Paramus fared against the peer average.

Visit NJ Spotlight.com to view an interactive map of average total SAT scores for all New Jersey high schools in 2011-2012.

--Patch staff reports

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