School District StrivingTo Improve





Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen was given only a few minutes to bask in the glow of the school district’s latest accolade before he was called upon to acknowledge that the district cannot rest on its laurels at the August 11th meeting of the Garden City Board of Education.

The superintendent announced that Garden City was ranked sixth out of 695 school districts in a recent New York Times analysis of all test scores in grades three through eight from 1999 to 2009.

However, later during the public comment portion of the meeting, Garden City resident Eileen Moynihan confronted Dr. Feirsen and the school board with her concerns about academic performance at the high school. She is also concerned with a lax attitude she says is exhibited by some parents who don’t realize the importance of a good test score.

She listed several facts to bolster her claim that the high school is underachieving. This year the district did not have an Intel Science Talent Search finalist, although they have had regional finalists and semi-finalists in the past. The ISTS is a prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Forty finalists are selected from a nationwide pool of thousands to attend the week-long Intel Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C.

The high school had two National Merit Scholarship Program semi-finalists, but last year had none, and two years ago had one. The NMSP is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. High school students enter the program by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.

Moynihan compared these numbers with other districts in which Garden City administrators usually use as a comparison: Great Neck South had eight, Jericho had eight, Syosset had seven, Herricks had six, Roslyn had five, Port Washington had three and Manhasset had three. She said all but one of those districts had a Merit finalist, which Garden City did not have.

Moynihan then turned to median SAT scores, which the district reported in the annual budget brochure as 540 and 590. “I am actually surprised you reported them,” she said. “I can bet they are not sixth in the state.”

“It seems to me at least that we don’t maintain the high level we have in the elementary schools,” she said.

Dr. Feirsen responded that he is concerned about the “high school culture.” He admitted that the science research program was revamped three years ago after it was discovered to be weak. He said that it is a work in progress and acknowledged that he is not sure that the district can ever compete with districts that have several Intel finalists every year because it is not in the district’s “mission” to assign students starting in sixth grade to universities that have a major research facility on site to perform research during the school day.

As for the SAT scores, Dr. Feirsen said that the district does not treat the exam as another school subject and offers no courses, like some districts. Garden City is working toward helping students achieve higher scores by encouraging them to take the PSAT earlier since it is a good indicator of a student’s strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses can be worked on so that improvement is seen when the SAT is administered.

“We agree with you to some extent and we’re looking forward to being a leader in all of those areas,” he said.

School Board President Colleen E. Foley said the district has instituted changes over the past three years to achieve better district organization. She cited the introduction of curriculum coordinators and improvements made to the special education department as ways in which the district has worked to better itself.




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