Graduation loophole common in Camden
There is good news for the state-run Camden public high schools: In 2014, the habitually anemic graduation rate ticked up by 6 percent to 62 percent.
There is also bad news: That is well below the statewide graduation average of 89 percent.
And there is another wrinkle in the graduation statistics that appears unique to Camden — and troubling to the state: The percentage of Camden public school students graduating by an appeals process, rather than by meeting state testing standards, has increased to nearly half the district's students.
"That means they have a fair distance to go to make sure their students are college- and career-ready," said Bari Erlichson, assistant commissioner of assessments for the state Department of Education.
Across Camden's five high schools, 64 percent graduated through an appeals process in 2012. Two years later, the number is still 48 percent. These figures were huge enough to make Erlichson doubt it until she heard school district officials had shared the statistic in its December press release.
Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard said the district is focused on improving instruction to boost test scores and graduation rates. Feedback for teachers is as simple as standing still while giving directions—students have a harder time listening to directions when the teacher is walking around. He said "great leadership" by principals had increased overall grad rates.
"We need to practice with more rigor and create a more challenging learning environment," he said.
Finding another example to compare Camden's appeals percentage against is impossible. The state does not list appeals as a separate category when it reports school performance.
Instead, New Jersey lumps together Alternative High School Assessment graduations — a less rigorous version of the conventional benchmark High School Proficiency Assessment — and appeals graduations and labels them together as "Other," with no breakout for the appeals portion.
The appeals statistic is particularly eye-popping at one of the city's main high schools: At Woodrow Wilson High School appeals accounted for 60 percent of all graduations.
Passing conventionally via HSPA accounted for just 25 percent of the graduations at Wilson.
Wilson high school parent Marisol Roman, who was waiting to pick up her 10th-grade son and 11th-grade daughter, was not surprised.
"They are not prepared. They are not learning," the East Camden resident said. "Security here is whack and the kids cut classes all the time.
"My daughter says she don't learn anything. I regret moving back to Camden from Pennsauken. There she was an A or a B student; here she is an F," said Roman, who shook her head when a student told her that her daughter was being held in detention.
By contrast, Pennsauken passes 74.3 percent of its graduates via HSPA, while just 9.4 are "Other" graduates. Pennsauken's acting principal did not respond to requests for comment.
Joan Borges Perez is one of the relatively few Wilson students who passed HSPA, but she admits she had to work at it.
She did not pass the math portion on her first try. But she buckled down. Using the discipline she's gotten in the school's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, she prepared, drilled and passed.
"I thought about doing the appeal, but I wanted to do this, for getting into college and the Army," Borges Perez said.
The reality is that graduating via appeal is not disclosed on a student's diploma or transcript, Erlichson said.
Camden High, the city's other main high school, saw just 19 percent of its students graduate via HSPA, while 48 percent were through appeal.
By contrast, only 30 percent of the students at Brimm Medical Arts, a small, selective city high school, graduated by the appeals process and 70 percent earned diplomas by passing HSPA.
In nearby Haddonfield, an affluent district which has one of the top high schools in the state, 98.4 percent of the students graduated via HSPA in 2014 and just 1.6 percent graduated via a less rigorous test known as the Alternative High School Assessment or AHSA, according to the state.
Haddonfield Memorial reported no appeals.
"It is something we are quite proud of," said Principal Charles Klaus. "We believe our performance on the assessment reflects the rigorous program of studies at the school."
Here's how graduation breaks down in Camden across two main high schools and three magnet high schools when looked at all together:
• 615 students attended Camden schools from 9th grade until graduation in 2014;
• 31 percent of those students earned their diploma the most conventional way, through HSPA;
• fewer than 1 percent became high school graduates by passing AHSA;
• another 21 percent were considered exempt, primarily special needs students who have Individual Education Plans that do not require them to pass standardized tests;
• 48 percent of Camden high schools' graduates earned their diploma through an appeals process submitted to the state Department of Education.
The appeals consist of a portfolio of prior work that is reviewed at the DOE to see if it meets minimal competency requirements.
The aggregate "Other" percentages at urban districts like Newark and Trenton shows total percentages as high as 69.4 percent, but the figure does not break out appeal graduations.
Some Camden charter schools are doing better than the public high schools.
The Camden Academy Charter High School graduates 55.6 percent of its students via HSPA and just 34.4 percent as "Other."
Dean Johnson, assessment coordinator at the charter, said none of those graduations listed as "Other" are from appeals.
"I think we are doing great, comparable to some suburban schools," he said.
LEAP Academy University Charter School graduates 76.4 percent of its students through passing HSPA, but 23.6 get their diplomas as "Other."
LEAP officials, who tout a 100 percent graduation rate in their recruitment of students, did not respond for comment.
Reach Kevin C. Shelly at kshelly@courierposton line.com or (856) 449-8684. Follow him on Twitter at @kcshlly