Summary:
The Upper Deerfield Township School District serves the community of Upper Deerfield Township, New Jersey, and consists of three schools: two elementary schools (Charles F. Seabrook School and Elizabeth F. Moore School) and one middle school (Woodruff Middle School). While the district serves a population with significant economic challenges, as evidenced by the high rates of free and reduced-price lunch, the academic performance across all three schools is consistently below the state average on standardized assessments.
The chronic absenteeism rates in the district are a concerning issue, with all three schools reporting rates of 16.6%, which is significantly higher than the state average. This high level of chronic absenteeism may be a contributing factor to the low academic outcomes observed across the district. Additionally, the proficiency rates on the NJSLA assessments are consistently lower than the state averages, with 8th-grade students at Woodruff Middle School performing particularly poorly, with only 46.4% proficient in English Language Arts and 14.7% proficient in Mathematics, compared to the state averages of 52.9% and 19.4%, respectively.
Despite the district's higher-than-average spending per student, ranging from $13,513 to $14,865, the academic performance of the schools has not shown significant improvement over time. All three schools in the district have consistently ranked in the bottom quartile of New Jersey schools, indicating a need for a comprehensive review of instructional practices, targeted interventions for economically disadvantaged students, and strategies to address the high chronic absenteeism rates.
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