The Hoboken Board of Education held a special session Tuesday to approve a report that gave it poor marks in three out of five assessment categories between 2004 and mid-2007.
After acknowledging specific problems illustrated in the report, Superintendent Jack Raslowsky, who only came into office this summer, said that many of the deficiencies have been rectified or are in the process of being addressed through a corrective action plan.
However, School Board President Theresa Minutillo discussed specific problems that Raslowsky agreed will need a closer look.
The QSAC or Quality Single Accountability Continuum is used by the state to assess and monitor each of New Jersey’s approximately 600 school districts. In this case, the self-assessment was conducted by seven school officials in Hoboken.
The assessment dealt solely with a three-year period of time from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2007.
While the district has shown improvements over the years in some areas, school board members noted problems with curriculum and with a lack of evaluation of various student data in order to make district-wide improvements.
Three out of five
According to the report, the school district scored below 50 percent in three of the five categories (fiscal management, instruction and program, and governance), while scoring at or above 80 percent in the remaining two categories (personnel and operations).
“If we were to have the QSAC based on the situation from July 1 through now, you’d see a markedly improved score,” said Raslowsky.
Raslowsky added that the district scored low in some categories because it did not count partial credit in certain sub-categories.
In the coming months, County Superintendent Robert Osak will visit the school district with members of his staff to review and confirm the findings in the report submitted to the state.
Some improvements, but…
Over the last 20 years, the district has been subject to complaints from critics because of high per-student costs, declining enrollment in the high school, and SAT scores below the state average in the high school.
For the most recent high school report card issued by the state (2005-2006), the average per-pupil cost was judged to be $15,930, while the state average is $13,169. This has been partially explained by noting that the district has a senior teaching staff that has worked its way up to high salaries. The average teacher in the district earned $79,659 in 2006, while the statewide average is $53,871. The average Hoboken teacher has 19 years of experience, while the state average is nine years.
The average SAT scores for Hoboken High School were 428 math and 421 verbal, out of a possible 800 per subject. The state averages were 516 and 494 respectively, and the average for schools in a similar demographic group were 515 and 494, according to the state.
For the HSPT test in the high school, the percentage of students judged to have “proficiency” or “advanced proficiency” climbed in the language arts category from the previous year, and declined on the math section. The school was just slightly below the state average in both categories.
A series of improvements were put in place to deal with some of the problems years ago, including implementing charter schools to encourage more students into the district, and improving reading and math curricula. Still, SAT scores remain low.
Also taken into account is the fact that an urban district faces certain challenges that some suburban districts or private schools may not. In Hoboken High School, 20.5 percent of the students in 2006 were classified as having some disability or special need that requires an Individualized Education Program (IEP), according to the state report card. Three percent were classified as having limited proficiency in English.
Minutillo’s concerns
School Board President Theresa Minutillo talked last week about specific problems that showed up in the report. In a phone interview Wednesday, Minutillo expressed her disgust, particularly mentioning that the district lacks a district-wide curriculum. She said this creates a scenario in which students in the same grade level at one school might learn different subject matter than those at another school.
“The situation with the curriculum is a mess. It’s a disaster,” she said. “We have a $54 million [school] budget and we don’t have a [uniform curriculum] across the district? If a child goes from one school to another, would they be learning the same [material]? There’s no continuity.”
Minutillo also said there is an apparent failure to use the test scores and student grades collected annually towards a district-wide action plan to improve certain areas of study, as illustrated by several of the negative responses in the self-assessment.
“Student performance and evaluation is the number one priority. Why are we collecting data if we’re not going to do anything with it?” asked Minutillo.
She added, “We’re failing our students, their parents, and the entire community we serve.”
Lastly, Minutillo expressed concern over the fact that approximately 53 percent of the students enrolled in the high school take the SATs. She also said that not enough students go on to college.
Yes and no
Raslowsky shared some of the president’s concerns, but did not agree with Minutillo’s description of the situation.
“Her word choice is unfortunate [because] it implies a crisis, and we’re not in a crisis,” he noted. “Each year, schools are making annual progress. This is clearly because of good teaching and students learning what they’ve been taught,” said Raslowsky.
He added, “Yes there are inconsistencies, not in the quality, but rather in the approach by individual teachers. What we lack is a written curriculum.”
When asked how a district could go without a written curriculum for its students, Raslowsky said that years ago there was one, but it was not updated over time and as books and requirements changed, the lack of revisions made allowed it to slip away.
Currently, the newly selected assistant to the superintendent, Dr. Anthony Petrosino, has been tasked with creating a district-wide curriculum, which he hopes to have completed for the start of the 2008-2009 school year.
According to Petrosino, who has a doctorate in education and development from Vanderbilt University, since being hired in September, he has been meeting with and observing administrators and teachers at schools throughout the district.
Petrosino said he is also looking for ways to better integrate technology into the students’ learning experience.
Another agreement
In response to Minutillo’s criticism about the way in which the district uses the testing and grade-related data it collects, Raslowsky agreed. “We do very little with the data we have, and there is a lack of data analysis in the district,” said Raslowsky, who added that on a more local level, principals generally review the data for their school so to see where improvements need to be made, as opposed to a district-wide review being conducted.
When asked who was responsible for compiling such a comparison-report for the district, Raslowsky said that in the past it had not been tasked out, to his knowledge.
“We should be using the data to make the best decisions in the future,” he said. “This is very clearly an area we need to work on and the situation will be addressed.”
When asked why such an apparently large number of students do not seek higher education, Raslowsky said that there are several contributing factors.
“We want to prepare all of our students for higher education,” he said. “But the reality is that students will choose not to go on to higher education for a variety of reasons, whether they be economic or family-related issues. For many students, particularly those of lower-income families, college is not an option they consider. We’re looking to change that [mentality] through increasing discussion about higher education [amongst our students] and making them aware of what the college world is all about.”
Michael Mullins can be reached at mmullins@hudsonreporter.com.