---

The state has released its school report cards for the 2011-2012 school year, and Asbury Park Middle School was found to be significantly lagging in academic achievement, college and career readiness and student growth. The high school fared better in most respects.

“The issues in Asbury Park long pre-date me and it’s going to take time to correct them,” Superintendent Denise Lowe said in a phone interview. “While [this year’s report card results] certainly are not acceptable, we’re making progress along the way. Each year, it’s incremental improvement.”

The school district has a “firm foundation and an action plan,” she said.

ASBURY PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL

The middle school was ranked in the eighth percentile for academic achievement among its peers, and in the third percentile statewide. The middle school met 10 percent of its targets in that area. Academic achievement measures the knowledge students have in language arts literacy and math, taking NJ ASK test scores into account.

In college and career readiness, the middle school ranked in the seventh percentile among its peers and in the eighth percentile in the state. It met zero percent of its targets in this area. The college and career readiness score measures the degree to which students are demonstrating behaviors that are indicative of future attendance and/or success in college and careers, including a measurement of how often students are chronically absent and how many students take Algebra I in either seventh or eighth grade.

In student grown, the school ranked in the twelfth percentile among its peers and in the fourth percentile statewide, while meeting zero percent of its targets. The student growth section measures the performance of students from one year to the next on the NJ ASK language arts literacy and math tests when compared to students with a similar history of performance on NJ ASK.

The report card categorizes anything below the 19.9th percentile as significantly lagging.

From the 2010-2011 school year to the 2011-2012 school year, enrollment in the school increased from 359 to 527, according to the report.

Twenty-one percent of students demonstrated language arts literacy proficiency on the NJ ASK test, according to the report, while 26 percent were proficient in math. This places the school in the third percentile statewide.

The middle school failed to meet schoolwide language arts literacy targets, with 79 percent of students ranking as “partially proficient” and 21 percent ranking as proficient or advanced proficient, according to the report.

The middle school met about 20 percent of math targets, according to the report, with 74 percent of students ranking as partially proficient in math and 26 percent ranking as proficient or advanced proficient.

These data, as well as details on students’ performance by grade level, can be seen here.

ASBURY PARK HIGH SCHOOL

The high school was ranked in the 61st percentile among peers, which is considered high performance, and the 45th percentile statewide, which is considered average performance, for college and career readiness.

In terms of graduation rate and dropouts, Asbury Park High School is in the eighth percentile among its peers and the third percentile statewide. This translates into a “significantly lagging performance” in that area.

Academic achievement ranks were not available on the report, which can be accessed here.

Enrollment dropped from 439 in the 2010-2011 school year to 393 in the 2011-2012 school year.

The school met targets for participation in the SAT and PSAT tests this year, but did not meet targets for scoring above 1550 on the SAT, taking Advanced Placement [AP] tests, or scoring a three or higher on AP tests, according to the report.

The school’s average composite SAT score is 1001, while the peer average is 1230, according to the report.

————————————————————

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

---