Collingswood Report Card Only Half the Story, Superintendent Says

The latest state report card for the Collingswood public school district is encouraging, frustrating and confusing all at once, says Superintendent Scott Oswald.

What's more, it only tells half the story of what's really happening in the district, he said—and then only somewhat.

“My biggest concern is that people are going to read what’s in it and not understand the numbers,” Oswald said. 

“They used to print things like how many kids are passing the tests. Now a lot of the reports are percentiles; how we compare with other schools within our peer group versus how we’re doing across the state.”

Oswald said that the data contained within the reports “is very useful” to district administrators, however, because it shows by what metrics the state is measuring the progress of Collingswood schools.

Some of these came as a surprise, he said, and included things that the district leaders weren't even told they should be looking for, like PSAT testing rates. Early drafts of the state report cards provided only to administrators even had outdated or incorrect data, he said.

“I maintain a little bit of concern about the accuracy of everything,” Oswald said. “We had 38 students take AP U.S. history; on the report, it said 53 had taken the test. Then you get into measuring median student growth percentiles for a school; that goes so many levels deep that you have to get to that level to see if it’s accurate.”

Most importantly, he said, the report cards offer a more realistic comparison of Collingswood schools alongside public schools in towns that are economically comparable and not just geographically proximate—something he has long indicated was lacking from prior comparisons of Collingswood with some of its more affluent and immediate neighbors.

In fact, the only other Camden County school district in the revised peer group for Collingswood High School is Winslow Township; for Collingswood Middle School, they’re Magnolia and Runnemede.

“For some time we’ve come under attack for this piece of data or that piece of data," Oswald said.

“Now we are compared with other schools that are deemed like us.”

The new math

In the new comparisons, CHS ranked in the 91st percentile for “academic achievement” (68th percentile statewide), 68th percentile for “college and career readiness” (41st percentile statewide) and 23rd for “graduation and post-secondary” (15th percentile statewide).

Those percentile rankings range from “very high” performance ratings (80th percentile and above) to “significantly lagging” (19.9th percentile and below).

“Academic achievement” scores are calculated based on standardized test results and the number of students tested.

“College and career readiness” is based on the number of students taking SAT and PSAT exams and advanced placement (AP) high school courses.

“Graduation and post-secondary” figures tally the number of students who graduate within four years of entering the district high school. Oswald has spoken at length about those specific challenges in the district.

In the high school, 98.4 percent of students scored proficient or above on state language arts tests, and 87.6 did so in math.

But in terms of college readiness, CHS numbers took a dip, with only 67 percent of students taking the SAT, 37 percent taking the PSAT and 17 percent taking at least one AP test.

Only 28 percent of those students who took the SAT scored 1,550 or better versus a state average of 43 percent and a peer group average of 23 percent. The average composite SAT score of a CHS student was 1,420 (of 2,400) versus a peer group average of 1,366 and a state average of 1,504.

The four-year graduation rate at the high school is 81.3 percent, which exceeds the statewide target of 75 percent, but the dropout rate is 3.9 percent, which also exceeds the statewide threshold of 2 percent. In 2011, the four-year rate was 87 percent.

District factor group illustrates impact of economic disparities

Overall, Oswald said the state report card results demonstrate “what we’ve been saying for years"; i.e., that its middle-of-the-road district factor group, "FG," indicates that the relative socioeconomic status of a town like Collingswood is healthy, but not necessarily wealthy.

District factor groups are state assigned and include a mix of variables:

• Percentage of adults with no high school diploma
• Percentage of adults with some college education
• Occupational status
• Unemployment rate
• Percentage of individuals in poverty
• Median family income

Other of the 92 “FG” school districts in New Jersey include Haddon Township and Cinnaminson; a notch higher, in the “GH” group, are Cherry Hill and Haddon Heights. Nearby Haddonfield is one of only 25 public school districts in the state to be classified in the topmost “J” ranking.

But in a district that receives students from nearby—and poorer—Oaklyn and Woodlynne, Oswald says, not every student who attends school in Collingswood is in a household of such means.

“The peer group serves us well because it gives people not only a direct correlation between the job we’re doing in the achievement and growth of our kids, but also comparing what schools are much more like us,” Oswald said.

“What you’re going to hear from those districts who are typically high-performing who don’t compare as well any more is that it’s not a fair comparison,” he said.

“In the peer grouping, the socioeconomic piece of it is based on [the number of students qualifying for] free lunch [from the state]. Once you jump that threshold, there’s no financial standard.”

What the numbers say

Oswald said that he considers data from the state report card data as falling into two categories: things the district can change by 2014, and things it can influence, like test scores.

The value to students of meeting those metrics is a different matter altogether, he said.

An example of “controllable” results would be something like the percentage of seventh and eighth-grade students taking Algebra I, Oswald said.

“The state target is 20 percent,” he said. “Where that number came from, we’re not sure. But we can put 20 percent in.”

Another example, Oswald said, would be the percentage of Collingswood students who take the PSAT. Typically, school districts in affluent communities, or those that pay for students to take the test, will perform very well in that metric.

“If we want to pay for it, we can fix that,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s good for kids, it just means I can fix the numbers. [But] I don’t know and I don’t really believe in my heart we’re heading in the right direction.

“There certainly is room for accountability, but at the same time, kids aren’t widgets,” Oswald said. “They all come in with their own strengths, weaknesses, sets of issues, all that stuff. To try to quantify them to the same number on a test, I don’t think it does the kids any good.”

It’s not just instincts that tell Oswald that, either. A handful of parents in Collingswood have been pulling their kids out of class during the school’s statewide testing days for the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and its elementary school counterpart, the NJ Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (ASK)—a move that also skews the numbers.

“They don’t want their kids to be the widgets,” Oswald said. “It’s not a mass movement or anything yet [but] there are parents who I think are getting a little disgusted with the establishment.

"We’re getting closer and closer to just treating kids like they’re raw resources that are coming in the door and we’re supposed to shape them up as some finished product,” he said.

Instead, Oswald said he'd prefer to see the district hone its focus on things like “genuine career exploration...giving kids the opportunities and the outlets to really go explore” their post-graduation options instead of just pushing them down the road to a very expensive college experience.

To review the New Jersey state report card for your child's school, take a look through the .PDFs attached to this story.