Regional Students Struggle on State Assessments

While the younger siblings at , and were exceeding the state averages; the older students at and were just barely outscoring their counterparts across the Garden State.

Students in seventh and eighth grade were scored on the NJ ASK test while juniors took the High School Proficiency Assessment and Biology Competency Test during the spring of 2011.

Grade Seven

At grade seven, 51% of all students scored at the proficient level and 12.3% scored at the advanced proficient level in language arts for a state average. In Mathematics, 41.4% of all students scored at the proficient level and 24.3% scored at the advanced proficient level.

On the Regional level, 67.5% were language arts proficient with 14.7% at advanced proficient. Mathematics, which is something the district has been focusing on improving in, saw 40.9% proficient and 43% advanced proficient.

Grade Eight

Prior to leaving the middle school, students in eighth grade were found to score better in science and language arts when compared to the state average but struggled in mathematics.

In language arts, 67.6% of the population were proficient and 27% advanced proficient, exceeding the state averages by a small percentage. 63.0% of all students scored at the proficient level and 19.1% scored advanced proficient throughout New Jersey. Local science students fared on average with 52.2% proficient (state average was 51.9%) but excelled in advanced proficiency at 41.3%, well over the state average of 29.3%.

While more students are scoring advanced proficient in mathematics at 48.5% over the 30.4% state average, just as many are scored at the proficient level. River Dell Middle School had a 39.2% average of proficiency in mathematics, just under the state average of 41.1%.

High School

Juniors seem to be fairing better on the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and Biology Competency Tests.

Students elevated their advanced proficiency scores to 30.2% in language arts and 36.6% in mathematics. The state averages were 20.8% and 25.3% for advanced proficiency in language arts and mathematics.

In proficiency levels, River Dell scored 64.2% in language arts and 50.9% in mathematics. All students across the state were found to score 68.8% in language arts and 49.9% in mathematics.

On the Biology exam, River Dell came in with 50.8% proficient and 20.8%. On the state level, 38.0% of all students scored at the proficient level and 19.3% scored at the advanced proficient level.