Berkeley Heights Public Schools has one of the largest increases in proficiency ratings among all districts listed, consistent with surrounding districts

-Written by an Educator in the Community

Each year, the New Jersey Department of Education releases its School Performance Report. According to its release on Patch.com, “school districts are scored from 0 to 100 based on factors like standardized test scores, student academic growth and graduation rates, among other metrics.” Higher scores are better.

Summary: Districts who were highly ranked last year and still highly ranked this year fell off a little bit (Bernards, Millburn, Westfield, New Providence and Madison). Districts who were not ranked high and are still not rose significantly and in many cases by a double digit score (Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Long Hill, Warren, Bridgewater-Raritan).

Berkeley Heights Public Schools jumped from being tied for 20th place to 8th place. In the BHCW seven-district dashboard, the order goes as follows from best rankings to lesser-favorable ranking:

• Millburn (Tied-1st place of these seven districts)
• Chatham (Tied-1st place of these seven districts)
• Summit (2nd place of these seven districts)
• Berkeley Heights (3rd place of these seven districts)
• New Providence (Tied-4th place of these seven districts)
• Westfield (Tied-4th place of these seven districts)
• Madison (5th place of these seven districts)

This can serve as an example of the impact that public discussions and demands for accountability have on school performance.  

Additionally, the article notes that, “that statewide proficiency rates for math and English Language Arts assessments have been substandard for the past two years since the pandemic.”

The table for all New Jersey school districts can be found here.

Linked here is a summary of the 2021-22 data (analyzed in spring 2023).

This table focuses on the 2022-23 school year data. Within the summative score and summative ranking category is the comparison highlighted in green (increase in performance), red (decrease in performance), or “0” (very consistent) since 2021-22 school year data.  Also, we still need to look under the hood at the specific proficiency scores but this is a good sign.

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