 |
| Kids First incumbents seeking Re-Election based on their claim of "continued educational improvement for all children in the district" |
"The high school graduation rate is a measure of the health of American society and the skill level of its future workforce. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, each new cohort of Americans was more likely to graduate high school than the preceding one. This upward trend in secondary education increased worker productivity and fueled American economic growth" (Aaronson and Sullivan, 2001).Hoboken High School has had 4 principals since February of 2010 (!). In addition, there have been numerous Vice-Principals, each with equally short terms. This turnover, instability, lack of leadership, and high suspension rate can only contribute negatively to the high school's graduation rate. What is especially disturbing is Hoboken has dropped from the fourth to the second lowest graduation rate in Hudson County.
2012 |
2011 |
Change |
|
HUDVOTECH |
100.00% |
98.48% |
1.52% |
SECAUCUS |
97.06% |
93.37% |
3.69% |
HARRISON |
92.70% |
92.44% |
0.26% |
WEEHAWKEN |
86.75% |
85.37% |
1.38% |
KEARNY |
83.58% |
88.45% |
-4.87% |
STATE AVG |
86.46% |
83.17% |
3.29% |
NORTH BERGEN |
82.87% |
86.17% |
-3.30% |
UNION CITY |
82.87% |
89.46% |
-6.59% |
BAYONNE |
79.22% |
78.53% |
0.69% |
WEST NEW YORK |
76.14% |
72.77% |
3.37% |
HOBOKEN |
74.53% |
81.99% |
-7.46% |
JERSEYCITY |
67.34% |
69.92% |
-2.58% |
Commentary: In reflecting on Aaronson
and Sullivan's words, what does the current graduation rate say about
the health and skill levels of the Hoboken students under the
stewardship of the political group known as Kids First and the
district's revolving door of administrators? Why has this data not been
reported at any Board of Education meeting to date? Is Hoboken becoming a
"good news only" school district where objective and independent data
collected by the State of New Jersey is neither evaluated, analyzed, or
reported? The district was certainly quick to report on some nominal gains on state testing recently. One certainly must wonder the reasons unflattering data such as the high school graduation rate are not being reported by the district. Whatever the reason(s)--- the data and the trend of the data is disturbing.
For information on how high school graduation rate is calculated by the New Jersey Department of Education CLICK HERE.
For State by State HS Graduation Rate CLICK HERE
*NOTE: this post uses ONLY New Jersey Department of Education officially released data that is posted online. District self report data has not been used.
Reference:
Aaronson Daniel, Sullivan Daniel. Growth in Worker Quality. Federal
Reserve Bank of Chicago Economic Perspectives. 2001;25(4):53–74.
