LHS Identified as a Highest-Performing Reward School

has been identified as a highest-performing Reward School, the district announced.  Livingston High School is one of 67 public schools labeled a highest-performing Reward School and only one of twenty-one Title 1 schools in this category.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration announced the final list of Priority, Focus, and Reward Schools as part of its new statewide accountability system developed through flexibility from No Child Left Behind.  The Department of Education will invest heavily in the state’s lowest-performing schools (priority schools) and provide targeted supports to schools with specific achievement concerns (focus schools) to ensure all students are on track for college and career readiness. 

A Reward School is a school with outstanding student achievement or growth over the past three years.  The types of Reward Schools are:

1. Highest-Performing: schools that are the highest-performing in the state, in terms of school-wide proficiency, subgroup proficiency, and graduation rates.
2. Highest-Progress: schools that have high levels of student growth, measured using their median Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) over time.

“I am pleased that Livingston High School is receiving both national and state recognition for its academic achievements,” said Dr. Brad Draeger, Superintendent of Schools. “This year Livingston High School had been included in the College Board’s AP Honor Roll for simultaneously increasing access to Advanced Placement course work while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams,” said Draeger.  “The State’s recent identification of Livingston High School as a highest-performing Reward school is an additional and welcomed recognition of the school’s academic successes.”

For the first time, these school designations were developed by taking into account both growth and absolute proficiency to provide a more complete picture of school performance and the needs of individual schools. 

A full list of Priority, Focus, and Reward Schools can be found here: http://www.nj.gov/education/reform/PFRschools/