Dear Parent/Guardian,

As you know, our school district is dedicated to providing all students with the educational foundation necessary to succeed in school and in life. To ensure your child’s success, we have set high standards that are reflected in what is taught in our classrooms. While holding high expectations for our students is not new, the way our school and student achievement is measured and reported is different under the federal education law called No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB requires that Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in Language Arts Literacy and Mathematics be measured annually for each school in New Jersey.

AYP is calculated for the total school population and for subgroups with students who have been enrolled in the school for the full academic year. The subgroups are as follows:

Student with Disabilities

Limited English proficient

White

African-American

Asian/Pacific Islander

American Indian/Native American

Hispanic

Economically Disadvantaged

Other

NCLB allows for a "safe harbor" provision so that schools are not penalized for a particular student group’s performance being below the goal, providing sufficient progress is made. For example, if the student group improved its performance by decreasing the number of students not proficient by at least 10 percent over the previous year, the student group would make AYP by qualifying for the safe harbor provision.

Schools that do no make AYP for one year receive an early warning designation to alert them that students did not meet at least one of the AYP indicators. If a school does not make AYP for two or more consecutive years in the same content area (Language Arts Literacy and Mathematics), it is designated a "school in need of improvement."

Under NCLB, schools must meet specific benchmarks in a number of disaggregated subgroups. In all, there are 41 indicators that are considered in determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). In 2006 South River Elementary School did not meet 4 of these 41 indicators. The total student population achieved the benchmarks; however, some of our subgroups did not even though a cademic progress was achieved during the 2005-06 school year. Hence, the Elementary School has been identified as in need of improvement.

All schools in need of improvement that receive federal Title I funds must assemble a school improvement committee to develop a school improvement plan that identifies areas of need and programs and activities to help increase student achievement. As a parent/guardian you are encouraged to contact your child’s school principal to provide input to the school improvement plan.

The Elementary School faculty and our entire district staff are currently evaluating our results along with a variety of data to improve student achievement. Furthermore, some of the steps we have already taken or plan to implement this year to address the areas that placed your child’s school in improvement status include the following: teachers routinely met with students before and after school and during recess to remediate skill deficiencies; grade level meetings were conducted where teachers were able to share ideas and strategies with their colleagues; the daily/teaching schedule for the 5^th grade was rearranged to create a transitional experience for the students. A benefit arose as now each teacher is able to "specialize" in the teaching of either Language Arts Literacy or Mathematics; all third and fourth grade staff administered a teacher constructed pre and posttest to identify areas of strength and weakness. Lessons were constructed throughout the year to address areas of deficiency. The use of backward design and multiple intelligences helped guide lesson construction; a concerted effort was made to highlight the importance of mathematics achievement to the students. The implementation of Family Math and Fact Family contests supported this ideal. Timed (sprint) tests were utilized to get the students acclimated to working at a quicker pace; the Singapore math program was fully implemented in grades 3 and 4. This program focused on improving the students’ problem solving technique. It will be used in grade 5 starting this fall; students were provided with access to the Study Island website both in and out of school. This program provided instruction and practice in both Language Arts Literacy and Mathematics. Student usage and progress on this website was closely monitored by teachers and principal. There was building-wide infusion of open-ended questioning on mostl written assessments as well as an increase in the usage of writing prompts. Teachers utilized rubrics more often to assist the students in improving their own writing. A writing portfolio was re-introduced which will be used as a basis to improve students’ writing abilities.

As you can see, our school is known as a place where Board of Education members, administrators, teachers, support staff, parents, students and the community work together in a mutually supportive environment to encourage academic, artistic, athletic and personal excellence. As an exemplary elementary school, South River provides integrated course knowledge through a broad educational program that fosters the joy of learning and challenges our students to develop their talents. Building and maintaining a high quality school is a goal for our entire community, and we need your help to achieve it. A home-school partnership is vitally important to ensure that every student achieves success.

The community of South River can take great pride in the Elementary School’s educational program and in its highly qualified dedicated faculty. We can be very proud of what we have achieved. As we look to the future, we should remain confident that the students of South River Elementary School will be prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. When the community, parents and school join forces in the pursuit of the best education for our students, they form an unbeatable team.

We want to continue serving your child and we will use all the resources available to us to help our students achieve. An important part of this effort involves parental involvement and support. The district and each school must develop and implement a parental involvement policy. We encourage you to become involved in this and other initiatives at your child’s school by contacting me. Building and maintaining a high-quality school is a job for the entire community.

We will continue to communicate with you throughout the year regarding the school improvement efforts underway and hope you will join us in supporting our students and teachers as we work toward reaching our goals for next year. If there is anything we can do to assist you or your child, please let us know.

Sincerely yours,

Wayne Sherman

Principal                                                                                                                                      back to top