| I marveled at the size of Trenton Central High School | | | | players, why not use their entrance standards as a |
| when I toured the facility on a public tour. It is 380,000 | | | | baseline to find out how many students qualified for |
| square feet; to put that in perspective, imagine three | | | | college admissions? The NCAA Clearinghouse |
| anchor stores in a suburban shopping center stacked | | | | guidelines for student-athletes could be converted into |
| one atop the other. Trenton Central High is the seventh | | | | a performance matrix of grade point averages and |
| most populous secondary school in the Garden State. | | | | test scores. The Clearinghouse guidelines are not only |
| With nearly 2,800 students, it has the fourth largest | | | | quantifiable; they are also more stringent, as more than |
| enrollment among urban high schools; among New | | | | 750 four year colleges do not even require the SAT |
| Jersey's high schools, only Elizabeth High, Dickinson | | | | for admissions. High scores and high grades would be |
| High (Jersey City) and Eastside (Paterson) enroll more | | | | assigned the highest point value, low scores and low |
| students. The 75 year-old building has character, as | | | | grades would obviously be rated lower. Such a matrix |
| well as a theatre that might have been envied on | | | | might give principals and school board members a |
| Broadway half a century ago and a swimming pool | | | | sense of the students they are sending on to college. - |
| that was probably state of the art in its day, but there | | | | The Armed Force Qualification Test (AFQT) within the |
| are the problems that you might expect to find in a | | | | Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery |
| structure that's lasted so long. The problems do not | | | | (ASVAB) scores for students who choose military |
| stop there; the building is just the tip of the iceberg for | | | | service: according to Military's website, the AFQT is a |
| this troubled school. The Trenton public school system | | | | test of arithmetic reasoning, math knowledge, word |
| is "in need of improvement" district-wide under No Child | | | | knowledge and paragraph comprehension. That |
| Left Behind, and has entered the later years where | | | | sounds much like a standardized test. Since schools |
| the school board and administrators must consider | | | | are required to supply student information to the |
| options for restructuring elementary, middle school and | | | | military under No Child Left Behind, the armed services |
| secondary education. Trenton Central High School has | | | | should have no problem sharing the pass/fail rates of |
| failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) | | | | the students who take their test. - Pass rates on |
| under this federal act for the past five years. The | | | | licensing examinations, if the school offers |
| Daylight-Twilight High School, also a Trenton public | | | | pre-professional or vocational training. This is obvious, |
| school, is in similar straits. Under No Child Left Behind, | | | | as the goal of the training programs is to help students |
| AYP is based on scores from standardized | | | | pass. - Proficiency/advanced proficiency on |
| mathematics and English-language arts examinations. In | | | | state-required high school examinations such as New |
| New Jersey, the bar, or pass rate, is raised each year, | | | | Jersey's High School Proficiency Assessment or New |
| with a goal towards 100% proficiency, regardless of | | | | York State's Regents Examinations. I would add two |
| race, special education or economic circumstances. | | | | other measures to the list: the reduction in the dropout |
| When a school fails to meet AYP, No Child Left | | | | rate and a redefined graduation rate. Beyond age 16, |
| Behind implies several possible remedies: restructure | | | | the definition of grade level takes on different meaning |
| the school, change the management, privatize the | | | | depending on the high school. While well-to-do school |
| school or convert it into a charter school. Parents must | | | | districts are likely to have a very high three or |
| also be offered the option to transfer their children to | | | | four-year graduation rate, others that serve |
| another public school within the same district that has | | | | economically disadvantaged students will have |
| made AYP, or to arrange for tutoring for their children | | | | students who must juggle school, work and family |
| at the district's expense. That leads me to one major | | | | responsibilities. They are less likely to graduate |
| concern: what happens when students and their | | | | "on-time," but it is completely wrong to label them |
| parents have no options - because their local public | | | | failures when they are dealing with their own reality. |
| high school is the only one in town, or they have none | | | | The important thing is that high school principals should |
| that consistently met AYP? I do not have to look far | | | | have access to the graduation rates for each |
| beyond the Trenton suburbs to find communities in a | | | | freshman and transfer class that enters their school, |
| similar predicament. Three communities that surround | | | | just as college admissions officers do. They should |
| Trenton: Ewing, Hamilton and Lawrence Township | | | | also know why students leave and whether they |
| face the same dilemma. I am not naïve enough | | | | graduated from another school after they left. These |
| to believe this problem is unique to New Jersey. The | | | | measures, when combined in some index, would do |
| problem is not as much with the schools as it is with | | | | more than indicate whether a high school is "good" or |
| No Child Left Behind - the act uses proficiency as the | | | | "bad;" they would show the direction that their students |
| basis for public policy. The measurement of the | | | | were headed - and if they did, or did not succeed. If |
| success or failure of any high school cannot solely be | | | | the school is the only game in town, then educators |
| based on student performance on high stakes | | | | may use this information for curriculum development, |
| standardized tests. High school students are not the | | | | or work out agreements that offer their students real |
| same; they have different ambitions, they do not take | | | | choices, even if they must transfer to another school. I |
| the same classes, and they have the option of leaving | | | | doubt that there would be any argument between |
| school after they turn 16. Proficiency can be one | | | | educators, parents and politicians that the SAT's or |
| performance measure for a high school, but it cannot | | | | professional and vocational test batteries are already |
| be the be-all, end-all, for-all. Moreover, No Child Left | | | | high stakes tests for high school students. We need to |
| Behind offers no incentives for a school to perform | | | | know what our high school students want to do, |
| better, only threats of embarrassment; the annual list | | | | whether it is college, employment, military service or |
| of schools that fail to make AYP merely angers | | | | family responsibilities, and help them get there. We do |
| residents and parents, and it only validates that | | | | not need more standardized tests to give high schools |
| perception of a bad school is reality. A better policy | | | | pass-fail grades; their students already take enough of |
| would recognize and reward students who have | | | | them to get ahead in their lives. |
| become more than proficient, and acknowledge a high | | | | Stuart Nachbar has been involved with education |
| school's accomplishments on a broader set of | | | | politics, policy and technology as a student, urban |
| measures that use the tests that their students | | | | planner, government affairs manager, software |
| already take, such as: - SAT scores: Since people | | | | executive, and now as author of The Sex Ed |
| continually mock the intelligence of college football | | | | Chronicles. Visit his blog, Educated Quest. |