District Breaks Down School Rankings, State Report Cards

With the recent volume of rankings and state report cards released for Millburn schools, the superintendent detailed the district's performance at Monday's Board of Education meeting. Although school ranks might have changed from last year, for the good and the bad, the administration won't be making many decisions based on them.

"Any district would be extremely happy for those national and state results," Superintendent Dr. James Crisfield said. "But at the same time we cannot be complacent."

Crisfield explained in his presentation, the district analyzes more detailed reports than what is compiled in the state report cards. Instead of using percentages of how students perform on test scores the district uses actual numbers.

He explained, actual numbers allow for more accurate reports because percentages mask small numbers. Crisfield explained as an example in a small selection students, which the tests use as variables, three students can make a large difference. 

"It's trends that matter not snapshots," he said. "It's very difficult to achieve statistical significant with the number that we are talking about."

In one of the slides, the superintendent gave an example of a sample trend analysis that tracks student achievement over the last few years with to show how the district looks at each grade in detail. 

He also noted, the district receives the state report cards at the end of the school year, which provides little time to make any changes. 

"We're going to do what we need to do to keep getting better," Crisfield said. 

The presentation also explained the different methods of rankings for each publication but ultimately said, "We're not going to make decisions based on the rankings." 

Each publication's methodology often changes, using different variables and weighting each variables differently, he explained. It also compares the high school with school with selective enrollment, charter or magnet school for example, which 

"The high school student achievement is as high and elite as it has even been," Crisfield said.

Full slide-show presentation can be found here. 

In the recent rankings and report cards:

• Millburn High School was rated 69th in Newsweek's America's Best High School rankings, which was the highest ranking the district achieved in the last few years and also the highest among open enrollment schools in New Jersey.
• In the school performance reports issued by the Christie administration, Millburn High Schooldidn't rank high among peer schools despite being first in average SAT scores. 
• Millburn High School dropped three spots to 15th throughout New Jersey in this year's U.S. News and World Report’s Best High Schools ranking 
• Millburn Middle School tops of state list in academic achievement and tested in highest percentile throughout the district according to the recent school performance reports issued by the Christie administration.
• Millburn School District's elementary schools were ranked in the top tier in academic achievement throughout New Jersey according to the recent school performance reports issued by the Christie administration.