[Elwood Community Network commentary originally distributed 2/18/11]
Well, this is certainly a nice thing to see. In [the February 18th edition of] Newsday, on page A34, you will find Newsday's chart based on the NYS SED report card for the high school graduates of 2010.
As you will note, Elwood's results are really good, and not only in relative terms but also in absolute terms. The reported results, for all eight school districts in the Town of Huntington, are the following:
______________% Regents __% Regents with _% Passing____% Passing
District _________Diploma __Advanced Desig. Regents Math_Regents English
Cold Spring Harbor__ 99_________ 77____________ 99______99
Commack_________ 99_________ 81____________ 98______98
Elwood___________ 96_________ 73____________ 99______98
Half Hollow Hills____ 97_________ 72____________ 96______96
Harborfields_______ 95_________ 72____________ 98______97
Huntington________ 87_________ 48____________ 83______81
Northport-E Npt.____ 92_________ 59____________ 93______92
South Huntington___ 93_________ 45_____________ 93_____93
Now, let's focus upon some interesting results. The district whose results are nearly the same as Elwood's is our neighbor to the northwest, Harborfields; we simply flip on a few positions as to whose results are "better," but the reality is that the differences are not material.
In my view, the category in which Elwood has long needed to improve has been for those graduates achieving a Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation, and here we have taken a very material step up. A chart of Elwood's results during the past seven years, for the two categories related to the Regents Diplomas, is as follows:
____________% Regents ___% Regents with
School Year____ Diploma____ Advanced Desig.
2009/10________ 96___________ 73
2008/09________ 97___________ 60
2007/08________ 94___________ 60
2006/07________ 93___________ 62
2005/06________ 93___________ 58
2004/05________ 86___________ 56
2003/04________ 84___________ n/a
What seems obvious is that Elwood has made a dramatic improvement in the important category of graduates receiving a Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation, and the past school year has seen the greatest year-to-year improvement during all of the years in which this category was reported. Furthermore, when you compare our district's performance in this category with the seven others in the Town of Huntington, we now have the third best ranking among all eight districts, with Commack best by eight percentage points, and runner-up Cold Spring Harbor better by four percentage points.
I have no doubt that this synopsis would be too narrow a valuation of overall improvement for our district, or for any other district, but I do believe in giving credit for significant improvements whenever credit is due, and Mr. Scordo, and Mrs. Llewellyn, and Dr. Mulieri, and our very supportive Board of Education, are to be congratulated for this achievement.
Kaizen rocks.
About Me
- Jerry Hannon
- After a thirty year career at Chase, serving as a Managing Director and Global Relationship Manager, I took early retirement in the summer of 2000, and that enabled me to become active in community, school district, and town activities. Since 2004, I have been a member of the Elwood School District's Citizens Finance/Budget Advisory Committee, and since 2005 I have been a member of its Audit Committee, and serve on three other committees of the district. During the 2006/07 school year I was President of the Elwood PTA Council, and I remain active in PTA activities. In the community I serve as EVP for Community Affairs of the Old Chester Hills Civic Association, and served the Town of Huntington as a member of its Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. For thirty five years, I have been a Director of the NY Council of the Navy League, and currently am Chair of its Audit Committee. A Vietnam Veteran, I retired as a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, and previously commanded two Naval Security Group reserve units.