Warren, Hunterdon counties' results mirror numbers in rest of New Jersey.

Saturday, October 04, 2003 • By TERRENCE DOPP • The Express-Times

TRENTON -- Mirroring a state trend, all but three high schools in Warren and Hunterdon counties are on an "early warning" list of schools not meeting mandates of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act.

Statewide, 271 of 361 public high schools are on the list, which education officials released Friday. All did not meet requirements of the act, which is the cornerstone of President Bush's education plan.

Under the federal law, schools are expected to show yearly improvement in 40 different categories, including math and language arts proficiency exams. All scores are also judged against the schools' racial and economic characteristics.

Schools failing to meet the marks for two consecutive years are deemed "in need of improvement," but because NCLB was instituted this year, the state opted to issue the early warning labels.

"These are not failing schools," DOE Commissioner William Librera said. "Many of these fine schools have been placed in 'early warning' because they did not meet criteria for one or two indicators out of 40. That does not equate to failing -- not in the least. Any characterization that these schools are failing is inaccurate and wrong."

Throughout New Jersey, 85 of the schools on the list fell short on just one or two categories. Also, 149 schools missed the mark in less than four categories.

Should the schools receive a score below 40 in 2004, they will be put in the "needs improvement" category, a more severe performance warning.

Locally, Delaware Valley Regional High School cleared 38 of the 40 benchmarks. Other Hunterdon County results include Voorhees Regional, 37 of 40; North Hunterdon Regional, 39, and Hunterdon Central, 39.

In Warren County, Phillipsburg passed 31 of the 40 areas. Hackettstown and Warren Hills Regional both scored 38, while Warren County Vo-Tech cleared 36 of the indicators.

Belvidere High School, North Warren Regional and South Hunterdon Regional passed all indicators, according to DOE records.

Phillipsburg Superintendent Gordon Pethick had mixed responses to the warning.

While he doesn't take the warning lightly, he says he questions how the state interpreted the data to come to its conclusion that two-thirds of the state's high schools are inefficient.

"Two-thirds of high schools in the state -- doesn't that tell you something?" he said.

Regardless of his doubts, Pethick said the district is going to continue working to meet the needs of students and improve curriculum.

He believes Phillipsburg High School offers students "a very high, high quality education." Several have gone on to Ivy league schools, like Princeton, and more graduates each year are going to college, Pethick pointed out.

"Do we have work to do? Sure. We've always known that and we've been doing it," he said. "But our kids are getting a good education."

Debate over subjecting the nation's schools to the guidelines has centered on whether a standardized education policy designed to improve failing urban schools is friendly toward suburban districts.

Critics of NCLB frequently point to its inclusion of even the most severe special education students. Those with learning disabilities are required to pass the same standardized testing as mainstream students.

In Hackettstown, Director of Curriculum Karl Mundi said the requirement to add the most serious of the high school's 37 special education students to the testing roster meant the school was placed on the warning list. The 11 students are not required to pass the High School Proficiency Test -- New Jersey's NCLB gauge -- to graduate, he added.

"With the No Child Left Behind law, I think the concept is great -- looking across the data at all groups of students to make sure no group is overlooked," Mundi said. "The problem we have is the implementation of this law."

On average, Hackettstown High School students scored well above requirements, Mundi added.

Librera and other education advocates agree with the Hackettstown school official. Their main target: the reporting system used. Detractors maintain it will lead parents to believe they fall within failing districts.

"The data itself could be helpful to principals, teachers and administrators. But if it misleads the public, it's a serious problem for schools," said Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association.

He called for greater flexibility in measuring special education students in the school reports.

"I'm not sure with the number of special ed students we have taking the test that it ends up being accurate. Their progress is measured in different increments than anyone else's," Belluscio said.

The main benchmark for school performance in New Jersey is the 2003 High School Proficiency Assessment, which serves as a high school graduation requirement in New Jersey.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools deemed in need of improvement must offer students the choice of transferring to a more successful institution in the district. Repeated failures can put federal education funding in jeopardy.

The 40 indicators used in the rankings include a minimum of a 95 percent participation rate in language arts literacy and math tests, along with meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmark target in the same subject areas. Data are then examined by looking at 10 subgroups.

Those subgroups include: total school population; students with disabilities, limited English proficiency students; white; African-American; Asian/Pacific Islander; American Indian/Native American; Hispanic; other, and economically disadvantaged.