I chose to look at Cresskill High School in Cresskill New Jersey and Dwight Morrow High in Englewood New Jersey Northern New Jersey and have very different demographics. It was interesting to look at all the data points listed in the report card, especially as a resident of Englewood Cliffs New Jersey. It was also a learning experience for me as a parent of three because Englewood Cliffs does not have a high school. My boys are eight and I am already in the process of trying to figure out where I should send my children to high school. Cresskill High School USA we don't all have a good school in our home towns or in neighboring towns, especially with the taxes we pay, especially in Northern New Jersey .
The student attending Cresskill High School are generally from affluent families. Although Englewood is also a very affluent area (probably more so than Cresskill), the students that attend Dwight Morrow in Englewood
Many of the comparisons are not surprising. I will list some of the observations I found interesting:
Class Size:
Cresskill has about 19 students per class and Dwight Morrow has the same around 19 students. I found this surprising and I was impressed by the class size? Is this a law? Do class sizes max out somewhere. In NYC it is the norm to have 30+ in a class.
Technology:
Cresskill has 150 computers in a computer lab. Englewood
Cresskill has 90 computers in classrooms. Englewood Englewood Englewood Englewood Englewood
IEP's
Cresskill reports 13.4% of children having IEP's. Englewood
Rate of Drop outs:
The drop out rate at Englewood Englewood Englewood
College Plans:
90% of the students in Cresskill report wanting to matriculate to a four year college and only 58% of Englewood
Total Expenditure per student:
Cresskill spends $13,824 per student and Englewood Charter Schools
Thanks and I hope this is not too long. I apologize for typing on and on. I am interested in all your opinions as you have so much more knowledge that I do.
Rosanna.
Good post, Rosanna. You bring up many good points. Class size is a good thing to look at but you also need to know how they do the math. They take the entire enrollment and divide by the number of classes. So small classes really effect the average. For example in a smaller elementary school all the regular ed classes have around 25 students but there are 4 special ed classes with less than 10 students in each. The average moves below 20 but it doesn't mean your child has a class that small.
ReplyDeleteComputer numbers are a little confusing too. In my opinion, having 1 or 2 per classroom isn't very beneficial. I think more labs are better, as long as students have frequent access to them.
Rosanna thanks for the great information. Class size I believe ia a true indicator by far of student's preformance. I think individualized attention is what keeps our students motivated anad challenged, but if teacher's only had the time. My friend is a Kindergarden teacher in West New York and she has 28 students with no aid at a Catholic school! So, it's pretty impossible to give individual attention to children.
ReplyDeleteHello Rosanna,
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you are thinking about high school choices for you kids now. I heard that some good high schools, unfortunately, are getting worse each year (funding issues?). I would be curious to know how well the students do on SATs and subject matter tests, especially in Englewood...$19,106 is insane - the state average is $15,538. I'd love to see how they spend it... Maybe demographics has something to do with the cost-per-pupil difference?
Hey Rosanna
ReplyDeleteI tried to comment earlier on this but I was having trouble leaving comments on other people's blogs. I just had to change my browser and it fixed the problem. Anyway...your blog on the high school comparisons was very interesting. I admire you for knowing what to look for and understanding what kind of learning environment will be good for your boys. They are lucky to have a mom who cares so much and is taking the time to educate herself about available options. I'm glad that you found my blog about Cresskill and Ft. Lee helpful. As always, anything I can do to help you out, let me know.
Shari
Rosanna, I think its great that you are investing so much time and energy in deciding on a high school for your children. Every parent should be as invested in their childs education as you. As a former elementary teacher, I found your question about the value of individual classroom computers vs. computer labs interesting. At the school I was teaching at, we had one computer in my classroom as well as a lab. The computer in the room was rarely used by the students since there was 25 of them. We did visit the lab once a week as part of the curriculum. However, we had a great computer teacher that allowed us to reserve time in the lab as we needed it. In my opinion, this was more useful than the once a week visit and the computer in the room. I was able to engage all my students and use the most current technology. I also like the idea of computer carts that can be used in the classroom since many of the projects we did required the students to use the computer and other materials at the same time.
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