This week the Hoboken School District will be engaged in it's third QSAC audit. The previous audits occurred in April of 2008 and, after an improvement plan was submitted, the Spring of 2009. The Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) is the New Jersey Department of Education’s monitoring and evaluation system for public school districts. Click HERE for full details. QSAC is administered and executed by the NJ Department of Education via the County Superintendent's office and is an independent audit of the quality of a New Jersey School District. This expert audit by educational professionals is in stark contrast to the opinions of anonymous bloggers, politicians, and candidates seeking public office- all of whom have varying agendas. The components (or DPR's- District Performance Reviews) of the total QSAC score include 1) Operations, 2) Instruction and Program, 3) Governance, 4) Fiscal Management, and 5) Personnel.
Significant gains were made under Superintendent Raslowsky in the areas of Instruction and Program (up 58.8%), Fiscal Management (up 70.7%), and Governance (up 100%) between the first administration of QSAC in April of 2008 and the second administration during the Spring of 2009. Operations and Personnel were already above 80% (state passing level).
In Hoboken, while I was the Assistant to the Superintendent, our initial score in INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM in the Spring of 2008 was 34%. Recall, we took office in the in the Fall of 2007. After submission of an improvement plan, the INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM score in Spring of 2009 was 54% (and increase of 58.8%). Credit must be shared with the teachers and administrators who made up the Hoboken Curriculum Committee. The second audit came 3 months before the curriculum and district assessments were completed. Therefore, with this third audit scheduled for March, 2010, I anticipate the Hoboken School District should gain at least another 10-15 percentage points with a completed curriculum + district level tests (all grades, all subjects) which will put our INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM score in the 65%-70% percent range*. This represents an increase of over 100% in a little over 2 years in the INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM QSAC score for the Hoboken School District (provided the district did not slip back in any of the previous advancements that were made).
* Recall, these were completed in August of 2009 although not voted on by the Board majority until December of 2009.
Picture: (L-R) Anthony Petrosino Jr, Kirk Raslowsky, John Raslowsky II (circa 1968)
