Yesterday the Fordham Institute anointed NJ with the dubious honor of having the most segregated schools in the nation. With last week’s issuance of the 2009 NJ State Report Cards it seems an appropriate time to revisit one of our favorite examples of the inequity in NJ public education: Moorestown and Willingboro Public Schools. Nine miles apart in Burlington County, the starkly different demographics can be teased out of the DOE’s disaggregated data. For example, one can look at the breakdown of Moorestown High students who took the language arts HSPA: 361 (just add together the males and females) of whom 308 are White, 24 are Black, and 14 are considered Economically Disadvantaged. At Willingboro High, 163 children took the language arts HSPA (much fewer than last year when 236 did). Of those 163, 151 are Black. We don’t know how many are White because the State suppresses the numbers of any subgroup when there’s so few kids that they could be identified. 72 of the 163 are categorized as Economically Disadvantaged. Anyway, here’s the data:

Moorestown High has a District Factor Grouping (DFG) of I, an socio-economic rating on a scale from A-J. Willingboro is a CD.

Moorestown language arts HSPA scores:
Partially Proficient: 4.4% Proficient: 80% Advanced Proficient: 15.5%
Willingboro language arts HSPA scores:
Partially Proficient: 41.7% Proficient: 57.7% Advanced Proficient: 0.6%
Moorestown math HSPA scores:
Partially Proficient: 6.1% Proficient: 46.4% Advanced Proficient: 47.5%
Willingboro math HSPA scores:
Partially Proficient: 63.3% Proficient: 34.7% Advanced Proficient: 1.9%

Moorestown SAT scores: 584 Verbal, 565 Math
Willingboro SAT scores: 405 Verbal, 409 Math

Advanced Placement courses in Moorestown:
22 courses offered, 17% participation rate among 11th and 12th graders, 284 test scores higher than 3.
Advanced Placement courses in Willingboro:
8 courses offered, 3.6% participation rate among 11th and 12th graders, 1 test score higher than 3.

Moorestown percentage of students who graduate via the HSPA: 97.1%
Willingboro percentage of students who graduate via the HSPA: 55.2%
Moorestown percentage of students who graduate via the SRA*: 4.3%
Willingboro percentage of students who graduate via the SRA*: 36.6%
Percentage of Moorestown students who go to college: 94%
Percentage of Willingboro students who go to college: 62%

*SRA=Special Review Assessment, a test given to children who fail the HSPA 3 times. No one fails the SRA.