Leave anyone behind?

I can always remember my mom and dad as we pulled away from a rest stop or a gas station break looking into the back seat where my sisters and I would be stowed away and ask, "Did we leave anyone behind?" Thankfully the answer for them was always "No! Looks like we have them all!" Of course I was sitting there secretly wishing we had temporarily misplaced one of my sisters!! But I digress...that is a topic for another blog entry....

The newspapers have been full of information lately concerning the No Child Left Behind waivers being applied for by state across the U.S., including NJ. With the legislation renewal still sitting on the stove down in DC, the NJ Department of Education has asked that NJ be released from certain aspects of the law that still feel unattainable and impractical, namely, the looming 2014 deadline for 100% proficiency and the jump in AYP proficiency scores annually. It will be interesting to see how things will unfold here in NJ (and the rest of the country) with these waivers and with any new version of NCLB legislation that districts such as ours may face in the coming months...

Over the past six years that I have been here at OCS we have consistently looked at the progress our kids have been making from year to year. Not only do we look at them as a group but also as sub-groups, for example, boys and girls. We read often that boys are being left behind in Language Arts as they get older and that girls are not showing progress in Math and in Science.

I am happy to say that we have pulled out of the parking lot, checked the back seat and can proclaim that we did not leave anyone behind! Even in the face of our elementary students not making Adequate Yearly Progress in Language Arts (even though we outperformed he state averages) , we have 94% of our 3-8 girls proficient or advanced proficient in Math and 91% of the same girls proficient or above in Science! Our pre-teen and teenage boys have also done well in Language Arts -- where we had 100% of our 6-8 grade boys achieve proficient or higherthis past year! Over the past three years we have seen a steady growth with our male students and the scores they achieve in Language Arts!

Success is something we have been demonstrating each year here at OCS!

Till next time...