Great news! As a friend rightfully pointed out although those schools have a Scotch Plains address, the students come from all 21 municipalities of Union County.

Scotch Plains High School itself didnt make the cut! so much for our tax dolllars

Exactly PAT!!Westfield & Summit HS both made the list, and SPFBOE often compares themselves to our neighboring schools - even a few schools in Elizabeth made the list.
It's was already pretty obvious our tax dollars are not spent on the facilities, which you could over look if the grades proved it was spend on the students......

The SPFBOE ought to explain the no show of our High School. Why exactly is the local Patch bleating about this? How many of our tax dollars (if any) go to support two s that happen to be Scotch Plains but take children from all over the County?
Anyone explain this?
Thanks, Pete.

Move to Chatham

Most of the individual rankings between Westfield and SP aren't too dramatic. The student-teacher ratio is the same, 16:1. SP's math proficiency is 3.3/4 while Westfield's is 3.4/4. And our English proficiency is 3.2/4 while Westfield's is 3.3/4. Not a huge gap in either.

It's in our College Readiness where we really fall down: 38.4 while Westfield's is 50.1. Our AP exam passing rate is similar to theirs (84% vs 87%) but only 43% SP kids take tests vs their 55%. And ours take on average 2.9 vs their 3.2.

Down at the bottom under "Disadvantaged Student Performance" is where things get interesting. The "state test proficiency rate for black, hispanic and economically disadvantaged students" in SP is 77.9 compared to our non-disadvantaged state test rate of 92.9, while Westfield's is 68.8 vs 94.6. In other words, both towns have gaps but ours is smaller. However our overall performance gap of black, hispanic and disadvantaged students is three times Westfield's: 14.4 vs 5.3. Add to this that our total minority enrollment is twice theirs (26% vs 13%) and the gap becomes clearer.

Well... No matter what race you are or how much or little your family income is, ALL parents today hope that the HS their child attends is preparing them for college...SPF HS is not on this list as a top school, even though we all pay top dollars in taxes ? Hmmm

It's time for Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School to make some improvements to meet the increase in our yearly tax dollars.

With the top heavy budget for administrators, principals, vice principals, supervisors, etc. in Scotch Plains and they still can't make the grade. Where is the money going?????

well go over the state report card and you can see even in middle school we have a lower level of advanced proficients for the majority students and for asians who outperform whites but are listed as a minority than other towns of same income profile. Not sure where the problem begins but its obviously fairly early. It could be the lack of higher level classes, or just not high enough standards. Most of our underperformance is in the Language arts portion. Except for asians and hispanics, we actually outperform in Math. From what I see the school doesn't offer enough AP classes, many of the kids took AP exams for classes not offered at the school. That is unusual for a district in our income level. It does look like Terrill is outperforming our income expectations, while Park is below. I'm not sure on elementary schools, someone else can break that down. I would certainly look at the management of HS and Park Middle. Remember whoever comes in it will take years to improve.

bubba is right..the issue is we do not have the breadth of AP course offerings that Westfield and other high performing districts have. We also have been curtailed by the fact that our Juniors are required to take "Global Civ" instead of a world history or AP World History. This leaves only senior year to take a history AP or take it as an elective. With the tax dollars we are paying we need an explanation as to why we are not even ranked in this report!

A substantial number of our best students attend the Magnet School because it is almost a neighborhood school to them. As a result, many of our best students are not at the high school. Our school district pays tuition to the county for each resident of Scotch Plains or Fanwood who attends that school.

BTW, not sure where your facts are coming from but our high school actually offers more AP courses than Westfield.

The magnet schools only take 2-5 students from each town per year, total number of students in each one around 260(not sure about the performing arts one since its new). My one child is a student at one of them, yes we pay for them, but at about the same rate you pay for a town education, and at maximum there are 20 students from Scotch Plains in any of the magnets. There are students from every town in the county. The only town I've seen underrepresented is Summit, I think its too much of a haul for them.

Yes we actually offer my AP classes by 2 but we only have a 36.8% AP Participation, vs 43% for Westfield.

Since most of the best schools don't actually offer credit for AP, but it is a good way to get the kid entrance, I think Westfield is doing it right. Its an area where top schools are more likely to look if you took any not what you took. That being said, if you are heading to many state schools its a great way to get credits. That still doesn't explain the 100 and some point difference in SAT score between the two towns or the fact that we do significantly worse on state report card. I have met tons of Westfield kids at the county programs.

A lot of good questions raised here,there is a SPF BOE meeting tonight at 7:30.
That would be the perfect place to ask, just do not count on getting any direct answers. The BOE pretty much counts on noone showing up to the meetings & take offense if you do take the time to attend & ask any questions

SP mom- clearly you are either a teacher or on the BOE to respond this way.
I have attended meetings, how else would I know about the poor attendance or the unanswered questions? So to quote you "it's quite easy to manipulate numbers to make them show what you want them to "- thats' exactly what happens if you ask a direct question at a meeting!! AT the yearly budget presentations the BOE compares us to the other DFG districts, we,the tax payers sit there and listen. So now are you saying we should forget the comparisions and just be satisfied with
not being on this top list when other districts the BOE compares us to are on the list?This reminds me of the story "The emperor's new clothes" open your eyes, he's naked, just like the inside of our wallets!!

So exactly where has the BOE ever explained its failings, all I've ever seen is the almost perfect self assessment and the mandated budget forms. There was something on NCLB a couple of years ago, and I believe something on SAT before that.

I am not on the BOE and I am a teacher, but not in SPF. My point was that there is far more to what makes up the success and failures of a district than can be gleamed from these types of "polls". For example, the large percentage of special education students in SPF, particularly when compared with other districts in our DFG, has a significant effect on our outcomes. These are never reported or even intimated in such polls. If you have, as you say, attended many BOE meetings, than certainly you know the best way to get a complete and truthful answer is to email a question to the superintendent/supervisor/BOE/teacher and then go to a meeting if you are interested in following up. Asking someone sitting at the table a blind question without giving them time to form a response with all of the facts in front of them is quite unfair.

This isn't a poll but an analysis, and after checking the number of special education students at the high school it seems in line with other districts. I really don't remember many special ed children in the mainstream classes after 5th grade.

First, you call me ignorant, next you say i'm being unfair for asking blind questions....you have it all wrong so stop ASSuming & accusing, you don't have enough data to come to such conclusions...so STOP it. But since you brought it up,
SPF has a very successful special education program, its so good that many parents move here and rent so their child can get the BEST of the BEST, without paying any taxes. Any parent would do the same thing to get the best education possible for their child if they needed.Most of us here were concerned about the regular & AP education- we want the BEST education for our children too...but we are not getting OUR money's worth!!

Yes just checked state report cards and the percentage of kids with an iep in the HS is pretty low actually 12.1 in SPF 15.6 in Westfield, 13.6 in Summit. We do pay a lot to send kids to alternative programs in the budget. That is actually a very large expense in our budget, but they are actually a lower percentage in our HS than in other districts.

I've been lucky or good with my three kids, only one attended the HS, one is at a county school and another in a parochial school(for sports oddly, I really don't think the school is better, but they are a lot better in one sport). I wasn't upset with what we got for the one child, however, I was not impressed. I really think if that child hadn't been so self directed, they had zero help from the counseling office, which seemed clueless in the case of many fields, that they wouldn't have done so well. There was no SAT prep, something you see at many other schools, and worse yet, they did very little physical writing. Something you have to be comfortable with to succeed on the new writing portion of the SAT. Happily they spent hundreds of hours outside of the school working on their chosen field and with professionals, several who wrote very nice letters to the college of their choice. The school isn't bad, but it is below average for the income level of the town. I really felt they picked a few stars, and then only if they were in a field they understood, nothing too technical. I believe the best comment from my kid was that in four years and having received multiple awards, that they had to apply for themselves(unlike many schools, they don't nominate students for many national competitions, even when they come with large scholarships), the principal had no idea who they were when they met him as a senior.

@Jenni; since your misguided anger has led you to successfully mis-interpret both of my previous posts, I will conclude by trying, once again, to explain the point that you actually solidified for me. SPF does, as you pointed out, have an outstanding special ed program, and, also as you stated, one that many move here for. This is a fact. We have a statistically significant number of classified students, including those who attend SPF HS and those who attend out of district placements. This is also a fact. ALL of these students, and their scores, post HS education, etc., are factored in to analyses such as this one, and are reflected in the results. So lets look at the top few schools in this list, which include many charter/magnet schools - those that students are required to test in to. What percentage of special education students do you think factor in to their scores?

(cont) There were no accusations or assumptions made, and in fact, since I have spent most of my life working in special education, I actually have plenty of data to support my claims. I also attend countless BOE and other meetings, and ask many questions so I understand the whole picture, not just the small slice that tends to get the attention, or that concerns a particluar individual (eg - just the AP, or just the "average kids"). Never did I say you asked blind questions; I was responding directly to your comment that the BOE "counts on no one showing up to the meetings & take offense if you do take the time to attend & ask any questions". Walking into any meeting and asking a question one does not have the information at hand to answer on the spot puts anyone in an awkward position. Sitting here posting on this blog you have the freedom to google anything you want. This is not as easy as saying "we are spending all this money on taxes, where is all the money going". The money is spent on ALL of the children, not just our own.

SP Mom is right. I, too, have been to plenty of meetings. The BoE welcomes attendees always. If a question is from left field, they will answer either fully or partially, but always follow-up. Question: my student is not in the HS yet. I understand that it is not mandatory for students taking AP classes to take the AP exam. Is this true? Is this true in other districts? Does this factor into the rankings?

I attend the yearly BOE budget presentation, every year and the BOE meeting when they give the school report- so any questions directly related to either topic SHOULD not surprise the BOE. A real answer should be provided and its not, for example The middle school scores spiraled down the past few years- a lot middle school students taking NJASK who used to be Adv, Proficient- are not just Proficient. No one could answer how that is being handeled or corrected by the BOE/teachers. I believe Hormones were blames, I guess the Homone levels in SPF are worse than Westfield and neighboring towns?
My oldest of 4 children attends private HS, It was our hope that the younger 3 would not HAVE to do the same...I'm with Bubba, not motivation here. And after the salries/benefits are paid , most of what is left over from the budget is spend on Special Ed. That is a fact.

Normally I would not chime in on this, but I see a number of valid points here that somehow have to be tied together in a coherent fashion. As it happens, I actually was at the SPF BOE Agenda Meeting last night (May 10) – it would have been a great time to ask some of these questions (as it was, in and out in twenty minutes – a rarity). There was only one other person besides myself and a reporter. Ironically, there were kudos offered for the MS Writing Workshop and Math
Explorations programs – with which I would have concurred if I did not see them as a remedial step for a weak curriculum beneath (not a reflection on teachers so much as what is being taught and how). Frankly, I have strong opinions about the quality of our Math curriculum in general, and am deeply worried that Science and Social Studies are going in the same direction

I am by no means an apologist for the School Administration, but unlike a lot of people, I have more time to be more involved in my daughter’s day-to-day education, so I have to be careful in my criticisms. My daughter achieves well but it seems too often she does so in spite of the curriculum and Administration (she has had much help from caring teachers, to their everlasting credit). And while I
kvetch about property taxes, I have no great aspiration about competing with Westfield or Chatham; Westfield’s BOE has problems of its own. (...continued below...)

Michael- i believe you are 100% correct in your view of the Middle School (MS) extra's. These were added due to the decline in the MS NJASK scores the last few years. The ironic thing is last week the SP Times listed the names and grades of both MS Distinguised Honor Roll/Honor Roll students - notice the decline by 8th grade. Plus, if we have so many, why are the NJASK scores so low? Something is wrong, and no one is fixing it. This is a HUGE problem
.

Extra-curricular activities at the Middle Schools have always been at a minimum ... At
the High School, there is much to offer beyond the Music program and Sports ... its
DECA program has been one of the best among Distributive Ed groups in the State
for a generation; Model UN and Junior Statesmen programs attract nearly 100
participants each; the revival of the National Honor Society nearly a decade ago
continues to flourish; and SCN and SMAC are leaders among several clubs devoted
to student service to others ... There is much to offer, and few students devote
their time to only one major activity beyond the classroom.

Look the activities at the school are fine, but we get our kids into more second tier schools and less first tier than we should. We have one national merit finalist this year, I had to look it up thats a drop from the previous years. Our SAT scores are right around the national average, while income in this town is certainly much higher than the national average. I've worked for my own college admissions as a volunteer interviewer, and yes the SAT is 50% of what they trust, why because there are too many kids with straight A averages who never took a hard class. My problem is from what I saw on these comments was first someone wanted to blame the number of minorities for our low rank, they adjust for that an thanks to nclb report card we can see they outperform expectations for most part, then its the magnet schools at fault, well everyone in county has that problem, then its special ed, but we have a lower percentage on IEP than other districts. Lets just admit that that the HS is not performing up to snuff for the largest group there, the average white kids who are performing way below expectations on the state report card. I blame a weak administration and weak standards. We can win band awards out the wazoo, but i just went through 3 years of college announcements and during that time only 7 kids went to music colleges. Maybe we need to go to a block schedule and get the kids the basics, and get their SATs up.