Family Reunion Pictures and the School Performance Report

It is entirely possible that you might have heard that the NJ Department of Education has published a new report on the progress that school district's make each year.  In the past this report was found in the School Report Card... a collection of data that included everything from staff attendance to test scores to computer numbers and many, many bits of information about the school.

The new report, found at this web address.... http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2013/0410pr.htm

is an amalgam of testing and demographics designed to give a district such as ours and our parents a snapshot look at the district.  Well it does that and much more...

Just like a family snapshot held at a family reunion, the picture has some bright spots.. the cute kids and the smiles on their faces... and some darker moments...the "bunny ears" a brother makes over his sister's head, the red eye or the uncle in the back row who had too much to drink before the picture was snapped!

The report is there for all to see... it uses words and adjectives to describe district's across the state based on a snapshot of data... and just like the finished product in a family reunion portrait, our snapshot here at Oxford has some positives and some negatives! 

One of the biggest changes in the way the report delivers information about OCS is in the new "Peer Group" that we are compared to in the report. This peer group is supposed to be comprised of schools that resemble our school in areas of demographics, in particular the percentages of Limited English Proficiency students; the percentages of students we have receiving Free or Reduced Lunch; and the percentages of students we have who are receiving special education support. The Peer Group is designed to be 30 schools who are like us in those categories and the number of students, grade span, etc...  However, our "peer group" only includes 4 schools that have the same grade span of Pre-School through 8th grade... 13%!  the majority of the schools in our group are 6-8 grade.  In fact of the 30 schools in the report, 18 of the 30 (60%) are only 6-8 grade schools.. and that is not what, or who, we are! 


Over the past seven years our district and our students have made great strides as we all work together to move Oxford Central School to a status that places us in the upper levels of student and staff performance here in our cluster, our county and in the state.  There are many positive in the report and I will be discussing the report in full to anyone who wishes to here on Wednesday, May 15, at 7:00pm in the school cafeteria.

I hope to see you there...

Till next time... 

 

Welcome Back!

The month of April typically brings some excellent weather and always brings some excellent events here at OCS....

Our 6th Grade are travelling to the NJ State House in Trenton!  Thanks to Mrs. Kantz for securing a grant from the Rutgers Eagleton Institute to help cover some of the costs for the trip and to the PTA for assisting with the remainder of the costs!

 On April 11th our 7th and 8th grade students will be participating in the Above the Influence Anti-drug program during their health classes.  This program is designed to appeal to students in the 7/8 grade and is a very powerful message for our students to hear!

Tuesday, April 16th we will be hosting an informational meeting for our parents who will have students entering our KG classes in the fall.  The meeting will be held in the OCS Library. 

On Wednesday, April 17th we will be hosting our second annual Poetry Slam to showcase student and staff poetry!  Thanks to Mrs. Housel and Mrs. Lurz for putting the Slam together!

April 20th, Saturday, we will host the Warren Hills Cluster All Together for Autism 5K and Family Fun event at Meadow Breeze Park.  The race and the walks will begin at 10:00 am and all proceeds will benefit the fine work of Parents of Autistic Children (POAC).  This is our third year putting this all together and thanks to Ms. Dachisen, Mrs. Diaz and countless number of volunteers from the Warren Hills Cluster Elementary Schools who work long hours to make this event happen!

We will also be kicking off the MARE program on Thursday April 25th! The cross-curricular program will culminate in our annual Ocean Night on June 12th!

The Student Council will conclude Autism Awareness Month with their annual Duck Race in the Oxford Furnace Creek. 


Quite a month!!

Till next time....

State Assessments are right around the corner...

State Assessments, the NJASK, will begin at the end of April.  Not everyone gets tested in the same week... there is a schedule set in stone a few years ago.  The schedule looks like this:
7th and 8th grade begins the process with testing beginning the week of April 29.

5th and 6th graders will be testing during the week of May 6th

3rd and 4th grade students will be tested the week of May 13th.

Prior to that there will be a month of exciting activities here at OCS...  Please watch for notices to come home and check out the Friday Bulletin!

Till next time...