Schools

Anthony Wayne Removed From List Of Underperforming Schools

Middle school was included on preliminary list of institutions in November.

was not included on the state Department of Education’s (DOE) final list of underperforming schools released this month.

The school was included on a preliminary list of Focus schools compiled by the state in November as part of the state’s waver application for the federal No Child Left Behind act (NCLB). The list also contained schools classified as Priority and Rewards schools.

New Jersey was one of the first states in the country to receive a waver from certain provisions of NCLB. The state developed the three new classification categories upon the waver taking effect. The categories are based on a three-year average of academic growth and proficiency on standardized tests.

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We’re delighted that the state has removed Anthony Wayne from its Focus listing,” district Superintendent Ray Gonzalez said in a statement.

Schools placed in the Focus category have:

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • The largest in-school proficiency gap between the highest-performing subgroup of test takers and the combined proficiency of the two lowest-performing subgroups or
  • Their two lowest performing subgroups rank among the lowest combined proficiency rates in the state.

Middle school students’ scores for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) mostly increased from the 2009-2010 school year to last year. (A copy of the NJASK results for the previous two school years has been attached to this article.)

None of Wayne’s 14 public schools are now classified under any of the three categories.

Priority schools are schools with the lowest school-wide proficiency rates in the state. There are 75 of them in New Jersey.

The state released its final list of Focus, Priority, and Rewards schools earlier this month.

“As a district, we’re strongly committed to ensuring that none of our schools are included in either the Focus or Priority groups,” Gonzalez said.

Reward schools are the highest-performing intuitions in the state. These schools have “outstanding student achievement or growth” in the past three years. There are 112 of them in New Jersey.

“We’re working extremely hard toward qualifying as many Wayne schools as possible for the Reward list,” Gonzales said.

Improving student performance is one of Gonzalez’s goals for the upcoming school year.

Gonzalez said that improvement will be sought through an “intense focus on enhancing the teaching and instructional experience throughout the district.”

District administrators will plan, develop, and implement a district-wide curriculum that aligns to the state and common core standards as part of the improvement effort.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here