
Potato, Potahto: The “New” Math Program
Will the “New”, New Approach to Math Improve Proficiency or Increase Frustration? The Berkeley Heights School District held a parent information session on our new math program last Thursday, August 29th, in the Columbia Middle School cafeteria. As with the presentation that was held at Governor Livingston High School a few years back, the room held a surprising number of...

Potential Strategies to Improve Test Scores at Governor Livingston High School
Recent NJGPA score decline shows the need to look into current practices. -Written by a non-politically connected Educator in the Community In April 2024, U.S. News and World Report released their public high school rankings for the 2022-23 school year, which BHCW summarized and TAPInto published again recently. In the rankings, Governor Livingston High School (GLHS) ranked 90th, a ten-place...

Breaking Down The Recent BOE Mathematics Department Presentation
Recent BOE Mathematics Department Presentation Details BHPS on Right Track in Math -Written by a non-politically connected Educator in the Community There is no question that math instruction has been an area of discussion and even controversy at Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) over the past two school years. At the Monday, June 10th Board of Education (BOE meeting), Supervisor...

Academic Goals: Shauna’s Notes on the 05/30/2024 BOE Meeting
Academic Goals -this is what is at the heart of every district, and there has been a lot of recent discussion about the Berkeley Heights Public School rankings. Data given at the May 30th Board of Education meeting shows that we have made modest-to-significant improvements during the last period for which we have reports. The tools and exams used to...

NJ Proficiency Reports – Berkeley Heights Public Schools Climate Indicators
Two climate indicators we decided to examine this year were HIB and Chronic Absenteeism compared to the other schools on the BHCW 7-District Dashboard. Chronic Absenteeism Berkeley Heights was in the higher middle in the percentage of students identified as chronically absent but experienced the second-highest jump from 2018 to 2019. HIB We demonstrated some improvement in connection to...

How Did Berkeley Heights Schools Compare on Student Growth for Math and ELA?
Student Growth is defined in the NJ Performance Report as: …..a measure of how much students are learning each year. New Jersey’s ESSA state plan outlines that academic progress will be measured with school’s median student growth percentile (mSGP) on statewide ELA and mathematics assessments. Each individual student receives a Student Growth Percentile (SGP) for English Language Arts (ELA) in...

NJ Proficiency Reports – How Did Each Berkeley Heights School Do on Math, Science and ELA?
Earlier this year we published preliminary results on each school, based on NJ DOE data with a caution that folks should wait on the NJ Performance Reports to come out before arriving at any conclusions. The final result lined up pretty closely with our original analysis. Here is the updated data. Math CMS is the only school at/above where it...

2024 U.S. News and World Report High School Rankings Released
Governor Livingston High School in top quarter of N.J. High Schools but last in seven-district dashboard -Written by an Educator in the Community Earlier this week, U.S. News and World Report released their public high school rankings. The specific link to New Jersey public high school rankings can be found here. Now, it is time to see how Governor Livingston...

2022-2023 7-District Dashboard District Wide Comparisons- Better But Not Good Enough
Background In 2022, BHCW, residents and three BOE Members (Khanna, Joly, Akiri) raised concerns about 2018-2019 Berkeley Heights Math, Science, and ELA proficiencies. In 2023, BHCW published extensively on the 2021-2022 results, demonstrating significant drops in all three areas. During this time, BHCW developed a 7-district dashboard of comparable schools that had Berkeley Heights last in ELA, Math, and Science...

2022-23 N.J. School Performance Reports Released- Berkeley Heights is Back?
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...