This paper examines the academic performance outcomes of Grace A. Dunn Middle School in Trenton, New Jersey, an urban school facing challenges common to resource-limited inner-city environments. Drawing on the 2013 New Jersey School Performance Report, the paper identifies critical deficiencies in academic achievement and college and career readiness, noting that the school outperforms only 10% of New Jersey schools statewide and achieves 0% of its college and career readiness targets. The paper evaluates these outcomes against ISLLC Standard 2, which emphasizes student-centered leadership and a culture of learning. Recommendations include greater parental involvement, community-based supplemental services, and increased professional development for educators, with the overarching goal of shifting focus from standardized test preparation toward a broader, more engaging educational experience.
Inner-city schools today are struggling with a litany of challenges that threaten the quality of education and the opportunities available to students. Issues such as high poverty rates, crime-afflicted neighborhoods, racial disparity, and limited parental involvement all stand in the way of bright futures for such students. This is true for the attendees of Grace A. Dunn Middle School in Trenton, which is working to overcome the obstacles typical of resource-strapped urban schools. The discussion here outlines some of the areas of Dunn Middle School that require improvement and offers suggestions on how to achieve that improvement.
Reviewing the Dunn Middle School performance outcomes, all evidence suggests that the school is in need of sweeping improvements. Under the requirement of mandatory state proficiency tests, Dunn Middle School has struggled to yield any positive outcomes. The demand placed on the school to focus its efforts on proficiency testing has not only failed to result in positive test performance but has also impeded focus on broader educational objectives.
According to the New Jersey School Performance Report (2013), "this school outperforms 10% of schools statewide as noted by its statewide percentile ranking and 29% of schools educating students with similar demographic characteristics as noted in its peer school percentile ranking in the performance area of Academic Achievement. Additionally, this school is meeting 75% of its performance targets in the area of Academic Achievement" (NJ School Performance Report, p. 1).
This indicates that the students of Dunn Middle School lag substantially behind not just the broad population of schools in New Jersey but also behind the majority of those that share the school's socioeconomic obstacles. The findings are even more troubling where the school's preparation of students for the real world is concerned. According to the same report, Dunn Middle School "outperforms 2% of schools statewide as noted by its statewide percentile ranking and 3% of schools educating students with similar demographic characteristics as noted in its peer school percentile ranking in the performance area of College and Career Readiness" (NJ School Performance Report, p. 1).
The report further indicates that Dunn Middle School is achieving 0% of its performance targets in the area of College and Career Readiness. This demonstrates a strong need to change the strategy currently in place at Dunn. Its emphasis on standardized tests has neither produced improvements in academic performance nor taken the necessary steps of involving educators and community members in their children's success.
Standard 2 of the ISLLC Standards speaks directly to this set of priorities, offering the assertion that administrative personnel should be focused on improving the learning experience of all students. The findings relating to Dunn Middle School suggest that, to the contrary, the emphasis has been placed on achieving proficiency in state-based standardized tests. In many ways, this imbalance of focus — which stresses teaching to the test rather than truly engaged and creative learning — has deprived students of the opportunity for a more dynamic learning experience.
This emphasis is also counterproductive relative to the priorities of the ISLLC Standards, which assert that "a school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth" (CCSSO, p. 1).
Based equally on the poor performance of Dunn Middle School and the problematic prioritization of proficiency testing, it can be argued that school administrators must take steps to restore flexibility for educators and to reinvigorate the focus on the process of learning itself.
A meaningful first step is to develop an improvement plan with direct input from parents. Involving parents in their children's educational lives at every level must be a clear priority. Jennings (2012) advises school administrators to "provide parents of students enrolled in a school in need of improvement with the opportunity to obtain supplementary education services, like after-school tutoring or summer school, from programs outside of the school" (Jennings, p. 1).
"Parental involvement and professional development strategies"
The plan for improvement of outcomes at Dunn Middle School should begin with a return to the emphasis on learning over state testing. This requires the intimate involvement of teachers, parents, and students alike. Dunn Middle School is likely to find that if it takes steps to produce a more engaging, personal, and supportive educational experience for its students, proficiency testing performance will improve as a natural consequence.
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