State Releases Its 2010-11 Report Card on Ocean City Schools

2010-11 School Report Cards:

Ocean City High School
Ocean City Intermediate School
Ocean City Primary School 

Schools have always used report cards to notify parents of student performance, but since 1995, New Jersey has required the schools to get their own report cards.

The New Jersey School Report Cards for the 2010-11 school year were released on Thursday (May 31). The assessment includes 35 "subjects" in the following categories: school environment, student information, school performance indicators, staff information and district finances.

The reports give parents, school administrators, city officials and the public a snapshot of how the Ocean City schools are performing — from test scores to dropout rates to median staff salaries.

To see the complete reports online, click on the links above. To print the reports, click on the PDF icons to the right.

A sampling of the types of data in the report includes:

• Ocean City High School's enrollment fell from 1,421 in 2006-07, to 1,282 in 2009-10, to 1,242 in 2010-11. (The total does not reflect the school choice students added in the current 2011-12 school year.)
• The high school exceeded state averages for the High School Proficiency Assessment, but was about average on it SAT scores: Ocean City average of 513 on math (vs. 518 for the state); Ocean City average of 499 on verbal (vs. 494 for the state); and 483 for the essay (vs. 496 for the state).
• Ocean City High School has a computer for every 1.1 students.
• 71.4 percent of the high school faculty holds a master's degree.
• The median salary for faculty districtwide is $90,434, while the statewide median is $63,851. Median salary for administrators if $121,494 (vs. $119,491 for the state).
• The district's cost-per-pupil of $20,343 exceeds the state average of $17,469.
• 8.4 percent of Ocean City Primary School students speak Spanish as a first language at home (5.6 percent at Ocean City Intermediate School.
• The student mobility rate at the Ocean City Intermediate School (the percentage of students who entered and left during the school year) was 12.7 percent, above the state average of 10.1 percent.
• At Ocean City Intermediate School, 23.3 percent of students had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) designed for students with special needs, disabilities and speech problems.

The state Department of Education announced Thursday that it will develop new school performance reports next year for every school in New Jersey. The new reports will replace the separate School Report Card and NCLB Report Card publications.

"The Department will set specific school and subgroup performance targets for both language arts and math, and will report annual progress towards meeting those goals," the DOE said in a news release.

"In addition, the reports will include a number of new data points including progress towards closing achievement gaps, comparison to 'peer schools' with similar demographics, growth as measured through Student Growth Percentiles on state tests over time, and additional college and career readiness data points. These public reports will help districts and schools to engage in local performance management by setting local performance goals, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing local plans to focus on areas of low performances in their districts."