New math classes, additional after-school and weekend tutoring, a return of teachers to classrooms, changes in the administrative strata, and most importantly a stepped-up effort from students are being credited with improvement on Hoboken High School’s state test scores, said Superintendent of Schools Patrick Gagliardi Thursday morning.
After two years of disappointing drops in scores on the state-required High School Proficiency Test, there was a lot of pressure on students, teachers and the administration to perform this year.
As illustrated by the test scores, all have rebounded with resounding results, especially on the math component of the test, where 60 percent more students passed then last year. Every year, juniors must take the test of mathematics and language arts. According to the numbers for the general education students, which were provided by the superintendent, the percentage of students passing rocketed from well below state averages to above the state’s target number for all schools.
On the math section, the state objective for 2004 was that 55 percent of students should be proficient. In Hoboken, in 2003 only 49 percent of general education students were proficient, but in 2004, 81 percent of students passed. Only North Bergen’s school district fared better.
Likewise, on the language arts portion of the test, the juniors showed marked improvement, with 85 percent of students being graded as proficient this year, as compared to only 79 percent last year.
Reasons for improvement
“The last two years were disastrous; there’s no other way to look at it,” said Gagliardi. He said that the district’s administration realized that major changes needed to be made. “These scores were not some aberration. There was a cause and effect that needed to be addressed directly, and that’s what we’ve done.”
One step that was taken was that the school was brought under direct control of the central office.
During the summer, Gagliardi moved his office from the Wallace School into Hoboken High School so he could oversee the school on a day-to-day basis. The superintendent’s office directly participated in the “reshuffling” of the staff and put as many teachers that had been in “non-teaching” positions back into the classroom, said Gagliardi.
Also, said school Vice-Principal Larry Sciancalepore, the school brought back last year a second required math class in the 10th grade called “Math Connections,” which deals directly with the type of math that is on the test. “We have doubled up on math,” said Sciancalepore. “[Previous test scores] showed us that this was an area that we really needed to focus on.” So, he said, in addition to the one math class, such algebra or geometry, there is a second mandatory class that prepares students for the proficiency exam. “There is a definite correlation between the higher scores on the math [portion of the test] and us requiring students to take Math Connections course,” said Gagliardi. Also, there has been after-school, weekend and holiday tutoring, said Sciancalepore.
More to be done
But with better scores come even higher expectation in the future, said Gagliardi. “We’re happy that we saw dramatic improvement, but we aren’t nearly satisfied,” he said. “We want to be hitting the mid-90s by next year, and then stay there.”
Board of Education President Frank Raia, who was elected last year, said change was needed, and the results show that what has been done is working.
“We knew that we had to make dramatic changes, and we have come a long ways, but we still must keep pushing forward,” said Raia.
School Board member Carmelo Garcia, who is also the city’s director of Human Services, said, “So much of the praise has to be directed to the teachers, who through their dedication and hard work, have been willing to put in the extra time and energy to help these students learn the skills needed to be successful on this test.”
He added that administration also deserves a degree of credit for assessing weakness and reallocating resources. “Now we need to make sure that these results and not only sustained, but are improved upon,” added Garcia.