State Report Card Grades Ridgewood Schools' Performance

The New Jersey Department of Education released report cards for the performance of every school in the state during the 2010-11 year Thursday, and not surprisingly the data suggests Ridgewood schools are still among the best in the state.

Overall, Ridgewood schools performed significantly higher than the state averages on statewide exams.

Earlier this year, school officials presented its list of goals for each of the nine district schools. The district set the challenging goal of besting district factor group (DFG) peers by 2 percentage points in language arts and/or mathematics at the elementary school level, while closing the gap in mathematic advanced proficiency at the middle school levels, and improving science offerings at the high school.

Ridgewood schools are part of the "Factor J" DFG, among the top socioeconomic, highest achieving districts in the state.

According to the state report card, the district reported spending $16,456 per student for the 2010-2011 school year, about $400 more than in 2009-2010. The cost includes district expenditures on classroom instructional costs, support services, administrative costs, operations/maintenance, extracurricular, transportation and other costs. The total of these expenditures is divided by the average daily enrollment to calculate a total comparative cost per pupil.

Compared to districts with similar budgets, Ridgewood's expenses are lower on a per-pupil basis. The average cost per pupil in districts of similar budgets was $17,469.

Here's a breakdown of the report card results at each school in the district:

Students at Ridgewood High School generally had a greater percentage of proficient scores than their peers in the state and the District Factor Group (DFG) — which measures schools from socio-economically similar areas — on both the math sections of the HSPA test.

Ridgewood students fared better than the state average on language arts section of the HSPA test, but were slightly below their DFG peers in scoring advanced proficiency in language arts.

The average SAT scores from Ridgewood High (1777) were in line with DFG averages in different SAT categories. Ridgewood students scored significantly higher than the state averge on the math, verbal and essay portions of the standardized test.

The school had a 96.17 percent graduation rate. The school reported a 1.1 percent drop-out rate, lower than the 1.5 percent state average.

Average class sizes at Ridgewood High School are slightly higher than the state average, with the whole school averaging 20.2 kids per class, and the state averaging 19.1. Eleventh graders stand out as the year with the largest class sizes, averaging 22.2 kids per class, as compared with the statewide average of 20.4.

When compared with other DFG schools on standardized exams, the B.F. kids received higher levels of overall proficient scores in sixth grade language arts literacy, seventh grade language arts, seventh grade mathematics, eigth grade language arts, eighth grade mathematics, and eighth grade science.

But it scored lower in sixth grade mathematics, seventh grade language arts, eighth grade language arts and eighth grade mathematics.

The vast majority of scores were within a percentage point or two of DFG peers.

Average class sizes at the B.F. are slightly higher than the statewide average. Overall, the school reported an average class size of 22.3 students, compared with 19.1 statewide. The eighth grade saw the highest average class size in the 2010-2011 school year, with 23.5 students per class.

When combining proficiency and advanced proficiency scores, G.W. students scored better on sixth grade language arts, sixth grade mathematics, seventh grade language arts, seventh grade mathematics, and eighth grade mathematics than its DFG peers.

It did, however, lag behind slightly on the percentage of advanced proficiency scores in seventh grade language arts, seventh grade mathematics, and eighth grade mathematics.

Average class sizes at the B.F. are slightly higher than the statewide average. Overall, the school reported an average class size of 21.4 students, compared with 19.1 statewide. The seventh grade saw the highest average class size in the 2010-2011 school year, with 23.3 students per class.

Third grade students at Hawes greatly exceeded its DFG peers in overall language arts and mathematics proficiency though it didn't necessary best other elementary schools in Ridgewood.

The Hawes third graders notched a few relative extremes when it came to NJASK language arts; the students had a high percentage of advance proficiency qualifiers (34.7 percent) but a higher ratio of students considered partially proficient (13.9 percent versus the district average of 11.2 percent).

Fourth graders were slightly above their DFG peers in overall language arts and mathematics proficiency, but had fewer advanced proficiency scorers than other district elementary schools on average.

Fifth graders tallied an 80.9 percent advanced proficiency score in mathematics, well above the DFG average of 68.2. and the Ridgewood elementary score of 75.3.

Average class sizes are just slightly higher at BR than across the state, at 20.0 students per class, as compared with 19.1.

Like its friends at Hawes, students at Ridge had little trouble receiving top marks in state testing.

From third to fifth grade, a higher percentage of students were considered advanced proficient in mathematics and language arts. a proficient score in the third grade language arts exam than the DFG average.

Only in fourth grade science did students have a lower advanced proficiency percentage than its DFG peers, receiving a 68.8 while peers scored a 70.1.

School-wide, average class sizes of 17.1 students were outpaced by the state average of 19.1, though low enrollment numbers in kindergarten (an average of 10.8 versus a state average of 19.5) skew the figures.

More students at Lenape achieved proficient scores on the third grade language arts assessment than the DFG, but fewer students reached overall proficiency when compared to other districts. For the math portion, 75.9 percentage of third graders checked in as advanced proficiency learners.

Fourth graders at Orchard scored lower than DGF and Ridgewood peers on the language arts assessment in terms of overall proficiency but fared better on mathematics and science assessments.

Many fifth grade students showed a high aptitude for language arts testing (39.7 percent advanced proficiency, 17 percentage points higher than district peers and 20 percent higher than DFG peers). There were troubles with math, however. Over 8.5 percent of fifth graders were just partially proficient in math, well above the district and DFG average.

Average class sizes at Orchard came in at 17.9 students per class, lower than the statewide average of 19.1.

The third grade students at Willard in 2010-2011 knew their language arts and math, scoring better than DFG and Ridgewood peers.

Fourth grade students conquered math NJASK tests, reaching a 42.7 percent advanced proficiency total, well over double Ridgewood and DFG peers; they also demonstrated 100 percent proficiency in science.

Fifth graders were on par with others on language arts, but again scored a 100 percent proficiency level with math.

Average class sizes at Willard came in at 19.4 students per class, a slight bit higher than the statewide average of 19.1.

The school near The Lawns neighborhood can definitely be considered proficient in teaching mathematics and language arts.

From third to fifth grade, a greater percentage of students at Somerville were considered "proficient" than DFG peers in language arts, mathematics and science.

The only notable exception was fifth grade mathematics, where by a very slight margin (less than a percentage point) students scored lower on the NJASK than DFG peers.

Somerville stood out amongst Ridgewood elementary schools in science, achieving 100 percent proficiency in the fourth grade. It did, however, have a significantly smaller number of students achieving advanced proficiency in fourth grade language arts (14.8 percent) than other Ridgewood elementary schools (20.2 percent) and slightly below its DFG schools (17.2).

School-wide, average class sizes of 18.0 students were generally in line with the state average of 19.1.

The third grade class showed a high level of overall proficiency with language arts (93.7 percent) and math (97.2).

Fourth grade Travell kids during 2010-2011 did well in overall proficiency regarding both subjects, but had far fewer students achieve advanced proficiency ratings compared to Ridgewood elementary schools. Fourth graders achieved 100 percent proficiency with science.

Seventy-nine percent of fifth grade students achieved high proficiency status with math, but couldn't count on the same with language arts (13.7 percent, about half the district-wide average for fifth graders

Class sizes were about on average with the estate, checking in at around 19 students per classroom.

See a complete breakdown of the school report card here.

Stick around for an analysis of Glen Rock schools on Monday.