Schools Receive Annual Grades

New Jersey has released School Performance Reports for 2017-2018. Even as they released the data, state officials said that the performance measurements included in the reports are only one of the ways to measure true quality of individual schools.
Critics of the measurement system often point to the fact that the highest grades go to wealthier suburban districts at the expense of schools in less affluent urban communities where educators face different challenges.
Still, the rating system is not without consequence since the state makes use of the ratings in some aspects of state funding.  They also provide bragging rights for some schools and cause other educators to have to explain to the public why their school is so low in the rankings.
The annual reports are required by statute. The state takes them seriously enough to produce an extensive guide to the various measures, explaining how indicators are evaluated and the weight each has in the school’s composite score and supplying a wealth of data that is never used to calculate a school’s composite score.
The reports provide information on test scores, graduation rates, and demographics, staffing levels, absenteeism and per-pupil spending. Detailed listing for each school and each school district are available for viewing at the Department of Education website.
What annually attracts the most attention is a school’s composite score and the percentile ranking that the score carries when compared to similar schools across the state.  
Two numbers on a scale of 0 to 100 are shown in the table alongside this article. 
Summative Score
The Summative Score is calculated by multiplying scores on various individual indicators of performance by the weight given to the indicator in the state formula.
Individual indicators may include math and English achievement scores, four and five-year graduation rates, absenteeism rates and similar factors.
Each indicator then has its own individual weight in the scoring system.  The indicators vary by type of school with a measure of graduation rates used only for high schools for example. 
Summative Rating
Once the Summative Score is calculated a second number is associated with it called the Summative Rating.  This score, on the same 0 to 100 scale, shows how the school ranks in percentile groups when compared to other schools in the state with similar grade configurations.
For Cape May County the data released this month show scores and ratings for 22 schools. Stone Harbor Elementary, Ocean City Primary, Dennis Township Primary and Middle Township Elementary No. 1 are not listed since they are all configured with grades below fifth grade. 
The state data also list Middle Township Middle School as Elementary No. 4. 
High, Low
For Cape May County the school with the highest Summative Score is Upper Township Elementary with 75.88 placing in the 86th percentile of similar schools in the state.
The school with the lowest Summative Score is Middle Township High School with 14.43.
The high school with the highest score is Cape May County Technical High School at 57.4. 
Those wishing to read the full report can visit https://rc.doe.state.nj.us/