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The New Jersey Department of Education’s annual School Performance Report was released this week. The reports breaks down the college and career readiness of students within all New Jersey school districts for the 2012-2013 school year, comparing the academic outcomes between similar school districts based on socioeconomic status as well as across the state.

ASBURY PARK HIGH SCHOOL

According to the report, Asbury Park High School’s academic performance “significantly lags” as compared to schools across the state and its peer districts. College and career readiness also “lags” when compared to statewide standards but is “about average” when compared to similar school districts. District students’ graduation rates and post-secondary performance “significantly lags” when compared to both state standards and peer districts, according to the report.

Average performance falls within the 40th and 59.9th percentiles, “lagging” performance between the 20th and 39.9th, and “significantly lagging”  is equal to or below the 19.9th percentile.

Asbury Park High School students outperform 4 percent of schools statewide and 10 percent of their peer districts in terms of academic achievement, ranking in the seventeenth percentile. Academic proficiency at the high school level is calculated by students’ proficiency rates in both the language arts literacy sections of the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment [HSPA].

In terms of college and career readiness, the school outperforms 39 percent of schools throughout the state and 55 percent of schools that fall within similar demographic categories. High school students’ college and career readiness scores are based on SAT, ACT or PSAT scores along with the number of students taking AP or IB courses in English, math, social studies and science.

The high school is meeting zero percent of its performance targets in the area of graduation and post-secondary study, according to the report, which cites a 51 percent overall graduation rate and a 4.4 percent dropout rate.

ASBURY PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL

The academic performance of students attending Asbury Park Middle School also “significantly lags” in comparison to schools across the state and peer districts. College and career readiness “lags” in comparison to schools across the state but is “about average” when compared to its peers. Growth performance “significantly lags” as compared to statewide numbers and “lags” when compared to peer districts.

Academic achievement measures the knowledge students have in language arts literacy and math, taking NJ ASK test scores into account. Middle school students in Asbury Park fall within the seventeenth percentile when compared to peer districts and the third percentile statewide.

Numbers of chronically absent students along with how many students are enrolled in Algebra I courses makeup the college and career readiness for middle school students. Middle schoolers in Asbury Park fall within the forty-second percentile as compared to their peers and the twenty-first percentile as defined by statewide standards.

In terms of student growth, measured by their performance on the language arts and math proficiency sections of the NJ ASK test, middle school students score in the thirty-eighth percentile with comparison districts and the ninth percentile statewide.

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