State Report on CHS; APs, SATs, and College Plans

Just as secondary school report cards go into the mail, the state has issued annual report cards for every district in New Jersey.  The reports include statistical profiles of each school in areas including student performance, staff information, and financial data.

Superintendent Brian Osborne prefaces the South Orange –Maplewood School District report by noting that “advancements have been made with significant progress on many fronts,” including changes in curriculum, enhancing the use of technology and improving professional development.

The full report, available here, lists data for each school, as of the 2009-10 school year and most recent standardized tests.  Patch looks at the report starting with the high school, which includes both Columbia High School and the Montrose satellite campus.

Data for the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) in both Language Arts and Math are not included in this article; they are reported .

Highlights of the report on Columbia High School include the following:

Enrollment: 1854.5.  Average daily attendance: 93.2%.

Percentage of students who entered and left during the school year: 8.1%

State average: 9.7%

 First language spoken at home:

English  92.2%

Creole  3.6%

Spanish 1.9%

Percentage of Limited English Proficient students: 1.2%

Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Results:  360 students, or 86% of those eligible, were tested. The average math score was 540. The average verbal score was 528. The average essay score was 524. State averages were 520, 497, and 499, respectively.)

656 CHS students took a total of 700 Advanced Placement tests. Of those tests, 531 received a score of 3 or higher.  AP participation for grades 11 and 12 was 34.1%, compared to a state average of 19.9%.

The percentage of students who dropped out is 0.6, compared to a state average of 1.7%.   Of that total, 0.4% were white; 0.8% were African-American, and 1.7% were economically disadvantaged.

 CHS graduated 98.3% of its class last year; the statewide average is 94.7%.

According to self-reported data, 69.8% of those graduates planned to attend a four-year college, while 19.6% planned to attend a two-year college. “Undecided” accounted for more than five percent.

The number of students per administrator at CHS is 244.  The number of students per teacher is 10.  State averages are 178.5 and 10.8 respectively.

 Total costs per pupil are calculated two ways. First, the “Classroom Instruction” cost, which includes salaries and materials, is $8679, compared to $8130 state average. The second total is the “Total Cost per Pupil,” which includes facilities maintenance, administration, and support services, is $16,980, compared to the state average of $15,538.

 In releasing the data, the acting Commissioner of the Department of Education noted that residents can expect changes in next year’s reports.  In particular, the data on graduation rates will be gathered differently in future years.  This is the 20^th set of School Report Cards issued by the state. 

Check back in coming days for data on other district schools.