Super: Schools on Path of 'Continuous Improvement'

The state show Parsippany student performance is improving in line with district goals. That's according to Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz.

The assessment, based on standardized test scores, shows that the  exceeds the overall state average for language arts and math proficiency. The report also reveals that while both l and  had slightly below the state average in the percentage of students ranked as "proficient," the High and the Hills had a higher percentage of "advanced proficient'' students.

"The increase in students moving to advanced proficiency is a result of our students, under the direction of our superb teachers, learning more," said Superintendent Seitz. "Our supervisors have played a major role in improving student achievement through the selection and implementation of new curriculum materials and we cannot rule out he impact that technology has had on our teachers and students."

Over the past two years, the district has reported educational success with  and other technological learning tools and use of instructional hardware and software will continue and expand in the next school year.

The superintendent said the drop in the "partially proficient" category should continue in the future.

"We expect the trend to continue and we expect to see fewer students in the partially proficient category and more students in the proficient and advanced proficient categories," he said. 

"Our are obtainable and we expect to see continuous improvement over the next few years."  

Seitz said that the federal No Child Left Behind law created a number of hurdles—he called them "problematic aspects"—that made success more difficult for schools to measure fairly.

Asked if one of those obstacles was the mixing of test scores for special needs students, non-English speakers and those in the general population, he said yes. 

Seitz defined it as "the expectation that almost every student will be proficient by 2014 regardless of any severe learning disability or language challenge and that a school is labeled as failing if one of 40 subgroups does not achieve at the prescribed level."

The melding of dissimilar scores is blamed in part for last year's report, which showed .

Apparently, the federal government agreed with many educators that the policy warranted review. .

Seitz echoed the sentiment he shared in .

"This has not lowered our expectations," he said.

"We are still striving to have all of our students proficient or better by 2014."

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