The-Leader_1985-12-19

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.. Olliclal
Newspaper
Village of
Freeport
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' Freeport
School District
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Baldwin
School District
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FREEPORT. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 19.1985
SlstYEAp—-No.34)
FREEPORT UE.aoRlAL HSRARY
1 MERRICK RD
FREEPORT H Y- 11520 6 "'
PRICE 25* PER COPY
Freeport School CAR Results Out
Shows A Few Weaknesses^
Baldwin School Along Wiih Sfrengfhs
Test Scores Up
Business, Home Sfudenfs Score Higher
Burglaries Than In Previous Years
FBEEPOBT - Ihe Freeport Sdioal District has released hs first
annoal Comprdienave Assessment Report (CAB), as mandated lunier
the Action Plan approved by the New Yoi^ State Board of Eegents in
Mardi,-1984. TUs report to the pDbQc is prescribed for all public
sdiooi districts and oon-pnblic sdnds in New Yort State.
The report, tocnses on U dif-
Reported
FKEEPORT - The bnr^ary of a,
Sooth Freeport fiome Satioday,
December 6, apparently .netted'-
the thief or thieves seme $150,000,
in jewelry.
The laytps Street homeowner
is ofEerbig a S500 reward for infbr-matioD.
leading to recovery of
the more'tfaan 8S pieces, whidi in-dode
bracelets, necklaces, rings,
watdies and pins.
The biuglaty wasjost one of an
increasing nnmbier that were re­ported
to pdice by both residents
and btmrcsspeople as the bcAiday
draws doser.
Pdice sources say that burg­laries
often increase in the weeks
leading to Ctiristmas.
Jeweby Described
According to the piidice report,
the layton Street hoose was bro­ken
into throng a rear window.
The jewdry was all kept together
in a loded cabinet.
Some of the 8S pieces are origi­nal
designs; some imports.
Among them are several pins, in-dnding
an Arthnr King signed
piece described as a 14K gold,
&ee form. Otha pins iodude an
all-diamond. iOower-shaped pin;
a gold and enamel fish pin, with.
niljy eyes; an antique pin of eight
.sm^ and one large, centered
opal, whidi can be worn either as.
a pin or on a chain; >md an enamel
and 14K'gold little lady bug pin.
- Among the btacdets stden
were several 14K gold ones, in­cluding
a one-half indi wide one
with a leaf design; another one-quarter
inch wide and textored; a
gold rope chain; a fresh water
pearl and gold bead bracelet; and
a fbor-and-one-half inch - wide
piece with a Dugget-lodr.
Several 'watches on the Ust
include a new Movado. Anotlftr
has a diamond cover and a brace­let
made of a doable row of nine
diamonds for a total of 147 dia­monds
on the'piece.
Necklaces indude one featur­ing
a 14K gold ctrde with a 22-24*
chain with a noall plaque design;
a square Egyptian Tutankhan fig-
(Ccnt.dnPageS)
byJoanDelaney
BALDWIN - At the Wednesday evening, December 11 Baldwin
Board of Education meeting, the scbod district's comprehensive
assessment report (CAR) was presented to the Board and the public'.
The report indudes infomuoiim oii staiidarrilred aptitude and adiieve-mient
tests. Regents onnpelency .and.adiiey^meht t^ts, attendance,'
graduation and drc^HXit sta­tistics.
This report is now re­quired
as part of mandate coii-tained
in the Regents Action
Flan, but it is a type of public
accountatHlity tliat has been a
Baldwin Sdiool District policy ~
and practice for over.a decade.
CalHng the information and the
analysis of the statistics an aspect
of the "Kience of education,"
Baldwin . Assistant Superin­tendent
o( Schools Gene Lanzaro
noted that the . report. was
straightforward, '.'wasn't covered
in any way," and was part of the
goal of better K-12 articula­tion.
Participating in the pre-sentatioh
were . John Campag-nino.
Assistant Principal of
Baldwin Harbor Junior High
School; Peter. .lyn«*, Baldwin
Senior High S<£ool Prindpal;
Nancy McBroy, Reading Cocndi-nator
K-12; Jidm Ryan, Prindpal
of Meadow Sdiool; Stephen
Sparacio,. Administrative Assist­ant
at the Senior High; and James
SpiraUs, Director of Psychologi­cal
Services.
The presentation centered on
statistical data in the airess of
mathematics, reading, writing.
Regents, l i i^ sdiod graduation
results, enrollment, attendance
.and drop-out rates, radal/
ethnic and Gmiled En^ish
proficiency status of popls,
average class size, pupil/support
staS ratio aiid socio-economic
indicatars.
Although eadi sduol district,
by. Regents mandate, must
present a CAR report to the
public and to the State, each dis­trict
may choose to indude addi­tional
infocmatkm beyond what
is specifically mandated. This,
BaIMn has cfacaen to do and its
report b therefore lengthier and
more comprdiensive than tome
districU. It was also noted that
the report provides a pobBc rec­ord
of accountability and pro­vides
an opportnmty for the
Board of Education to conunent'
on the edocatian in the district.
If a i£stri^'s CAR report (Ud -
not indicaie. mindited com­petency,
the.Stale would'step
in to devdop with the district a
CSiP (t^omprdiensive Sdiool
Improvement Plan) and'would
monitnr education in sodi a dis­trict.
i U s B not.the case in Bald-irin-
vrtioce scores were signifi­cantly
above any state reference
points. Baldwin's • scores were
also expected to be above local -
Nassau County, levds aUhougb,
at the time of the Board meeting,
other Nassau scores were not
yet avulable to scbod ffistricts.
(In this past December ISth
Simday, Newsday, Baldwin's
scores were in fact above the Nas­sau
average.)
In .the last several years,
Baldwin's New 'IToit State
Pupil Evaluation lYogram
(NYSPEP) scores had dipped at
the sixth grade levd. Because of
that, the District bad instituted a
program aimed at improving
test results while coctimung'to
maintain its commitment not to
teach only for tests but rather
for approved general educational
and personal learning* goals.
However, to effect linprovement,
the district ondertcxA an item by
item analysis of test results in
niatfa, providing teadiera with
spedfie feedback on problem
-areas. The district also bistitated
a commitment to'-, maximizing
instructional time, rearranging
the sdiediiling of certain activi­ties
such as pfayncal Btntss
testing and concerts to provide
optimtmi tesMaking conditions.
The resub of that eSort bu been
a signifirant improvement in
NYSPEP scores with fewer
children below th^ «*•<»( reference
(Coftt-onPagelO)
ferent measures selected by the
Regents; four of these are state­wide
standardized tests (the PEP
tests, Prefiminaiy Competency
Tests, Regents Cotppetency
Tests and Regents Examinati(ms)
and eight are primarily demo­graphic
htnatore. These Jndiide
data on gtadoation; enrollment,
atiendaoce and dropout rates;
raoal ethnic data; dass sire;
pupil/support staff ratio; and
sodo-eoonoinic indicatias.
. Coides of the report,have.air
ready tjeen distributed to mem­bers
of Freeport's PTA Council
and are i>dng presented at the
monthly Sduol Board meeting
Wednesday, Decemlier 18.
Freeport - Superintendent of
Schods Or. Jdba E. Bienrirth
said, "we are pleased with the
repcxt.-it stiows a few weaknesses
along with our strengths, but
there were no weaknesses wfaidi
we were Unaware of and none we
' are not working on."
The last of four majw sections
of the report is titled "Building
for the Future" and focuses on
substantial dianges the district
has implemented in its educa­tional
program.
The report does show a drop
in Freeport.'s PEP math test
scores ^ e n to thhd grade stu­dents.
In 1983-84. 87% of the 397
third graders given the test
- scored above the State Reference
Point (SRP). In 1984-85, of 394
tested, 80%'scored above the
SRP. When compared to the
2AN^
statewide levd, however. Free-port-
was not that tu i>elow the
81.7% SRP. Nassau,' however, .
had a county-wide 93.4 figure.
fthe percentage of students
below the SRP reflect those need­ing
remedial work.)
Sixth grade PEP math scores
fared better. The most recent
results showed 79% above .SEP,
eight percentage points above the
results achieved in 1983-84.
The statewide figure is only
slightly higher, 79.7%, although..
Nassau's is 92.4%.
Assistant Superintendent of
Schools Doris Selub noted that
the PEP test was i:lianged three
years ago to indude questions on
probability and statistics. The
district has l>een ooncentrating
on curriculum dianges to improve
skills in probability and prdilem
solving. •
Sdub considered the improved
sixth grade results the more im-portant
ofthe two sets of Ggures,-
noting that, if the student eventu­ally
absorbs and masters the sub­ject,
"that's wliat matters."
About ail the figures, Mrs.
Selub said she feh that many
individual sdiool figures, as well
as some district-wide figures,
, show FreMport doing I>etter than
some "middle dass districts,"
which spend more on education,
pahkulariy support services.
"We will never have their
money," Mrs. Selub said of some
. of the wealthier districts^
(Com. on Page 14)
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT of giving la reflected by thi* group of Frseport
(iretighterB, the U.S. Marine Corps and, of course, Santa Claus. Dona­tions
of toys for needy youngsters lor Chrlstmaa wAre brought to The
Elks Plaza on West Merrick Road In Freeport.
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