1. Ridgefield Public Schools New Jersey School Performance Report
January 25, 2018

2. Assess Students’ Progress Toward Meeting Standards
The 2016/17 school performance reports are designed to share school and
district information collected by the New Jersey Department of Education
directly with parents, educators, and communities.
The report includes information about the school districts for performance
indicators such as; standardized testing performance, student and staff
attendance, graduation rates, demographics, and student to staff ratios.
New Jersey has developed a school accountability system as required by the
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to identify schools in need of support.
The full reports can be viewed on the NJDOE website at:
But also in 2008, the High School Redesign Taskforce courageously stated that New Jersey’s old high school assessment – the High School Proficiency Assessment or HSPA – wasn’t measuring college or career readiness. And that it was all but ignored by colleges.

3. Proficiency in Student Progress
School district progress is measured through performance on standardized
testing. The current measure of student progress is the PARCC assessment
for English/Language Arts and math.
Students are tested in grades 3 – 12 in the area of ELA and 3 – 8 in math,
with content area tests at the secondary level in Algebra I, Algebra II, and
Geometry.
The following slides demonstrate student progress trends on the PARCC
trends over the past three years. The graphs present the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations over the past three years. The students are compared against their performance from the prior school year.
This data is also presented each school year in the fall during the Annual Data Presentation.

9. Chronic Absenteeism
Another measure of school data is chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined as being absent for 10% or more of the days enrolled during the school year. A student who is not present for any reason, excused, unexcused or for disciplinary action, is considered absent unless permitted by a state regulation.

10. This graph compares the chronic absenteeism by grade
level within the school district to absenteeism across the state.

11. Chronic Absenteeism by School
*Target not met.

12. Graduation Rates
With this new graduation calculation in place, each incoming 9th Grader in New Jersey is assigned
to a graduation cohort based on the expectation that each will graduate in 4-years. For example,
if a student entered ninth grade in 2013, then she/he would be assigned to the 2017 Cohort.
Once a student is assigned a cohort year, they remain in that same cohort regardless of when
they actually graduate. In other words, cohorts are assigned once and are not changed if a
student becomes “off-track.”
While students are actively enrolled in high school, their status is tracked to determine whether
they are on-track or off-track to achieving graduation in four years. Students’ grade levels
determine their progress towards graduation. For example, if a student in Cohort 2017 is in
eleventh grade during the Fall of 2015, they would be considered “on-track”. However, if a
student from the 2017 cohort is enrolled in tenth grade during the Fall of 2015, then they would
be considered “off-track” since she/he would be at risk of not graduating within four years.
When a student exits or enters a district, it may affect the district’s cohort size, resulting in an
adjusted cohort. For example, if a Cohort 2017 student transfers from District A to District B, then
District B’s cohort count is increased by one student and District A’s cohort count is decreased by
one student. However, if that student dropped out of District A before being successfully
transferring to another district, then District A would be responsible for that student and their
cohort count would not be adjusted. Rules determining “district ownership” of individual students
have not changed and are clearly documented in NJ DOE regulations.

13. Three Year Graduation Rates
School drop-out rates were less than 1% for all three years.

18. School District Staffing
The overall attendance for staff is 96% throughout the school year. The following
graph demonstrates student to staff ratios.
Staff Type
Ratio
Teachers
11:1
Administrators
95:1
Media Specialists
1710:1
Nurses
427:1
Counselors
342:1
Child Study Team
244:1

19. Thank you!
Questions?