Schools

NJ DOE: Westfield School District 'High Performing'

Superintendent Dolan reports second consecutive rating of excellence for district.

For the second time in a row, the Westfield Public School District has earned a "high performing" rating by the State Department of Education. 

Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan announced Tuesday evening that the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum rating from the state shows Westfield scoring 98 percent on the review factors. The state DOE requires the NJQSAC review process for school districts every three years; the district earned the "high performing" status in 2008.

“We’re certainly pleased with that,” Dolan said.

Find out what's happening in Westfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

NJQSAC rates school districts based on more than 500 factors, including fiscal management, board governance, operations, student performance, curriculum and personnel. The ratings are based on information compiled by the school district and reviews by a district committee and the county schools superintendent.

Dolan briefed Board of Education members Tuesday evening on the process utilized, including documents relating to each of the review areas. These included all mandated state reports, curriculum documents, BOE policy statements, lesson plans and administrative reviews of lesson plans. The documents were reviewed by the county superintendent’s office in January and by the state education commissioner’s office in the late winter.

Find out what's happening in Westfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The amount of paper that has to be compiled would fill two file drawers,” Dolan said.

In her presentation, Dolan said the judging process used by the state includes reviews of the school system’s performance in each of the review areas. She said the process does not include partial credit in any of the areas.

Dolan said that, in the past, the BOE will take away points for districts that have not passed the state mandated number of policy statements in particular areas or if BOE members do not attend enough meetings. She said Westfield has not had an issue in these situations. She added that the district's score of 98 came after a 2-point deduction was the result of not passing the mandate that 95 percent of students in each grade level pass state-mandated tests or the district showing a  5 percent increase in passage of state tests in each of the grade levels for the three years since the last test.

Dolan said the size of Westfield's district, with more than 6,000 students, makes it difficult to earn a perfect score for three straight years.

BOE members used the presentation to promote the impact on Westfield schools. BOE member Ginny Leiz discussed the process used to compile the material for state review and the time needed to assemble the documents.

BOE member Mitch Slater turned his attention to marketing the continued state rating, asking if the material could be included in a submission to New Jersey Monthly during the magazine’s , which ranked Westfield High School 41st on the list. Dolan said the NJSQAC ranking is not included in the magazine's judging criteria.

Slater said he has other ways to market the new ranking.

“This would be something we should promote when the Facebook page is up and running,” said Slater, who has been promoting the creation of a BOE fan page on the social networking site.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here