By Scott Brinton
Goldstein noted that the percentage of students earning Regents diplomas stood at 84 last year, the 10th-best rate in Nassau County among the 44 districts with high schools.
The assistant superintendent said that, among the 44 districts, Bellmore-Merrick has the sixth-lowest per-pupil spending ratio. He also noted that the ratio is actually lower than sixth, because all but one of the other Nassau districts are unified systems that include elementary and high schools. In most cases, the elementary schools bring per-pupil totals down, while the Central District's per-pupil ratio reflects only what is spent in the middle and high schools.
Goldstein said that 93 percent of Bellmore-Merrick students graduate on time, compared to the New York state average of 76 percent. The Central District's dropout, or "non-completion," rate stands at .9 percent. Meanwhile, 97 percent of Central students go on to college.
On the eighth-grade state English Language Arts test, 72 percent of Central students earned a passing mark of 3 or 4, compared to the state average of 47 percent.
Goldstein said that he would like to see higher scores on the eighth-grade ELA. "We were a little disappointed..." he said. But he quickly noted that preliminary results of the eighth-grade ELA show that 80 percent of Bellmore-Merrick students passed. And he said, "We were pleased with that."
Ninety-seven percent of Central District students passed the English Regents last year, compared to the state average of 62 percent. Goldstein chalked the result up to the district's seventh- and eighth-grade reading-support programs, as well as the new ninth-grade writing seminar.
Dr. Thomas Caramore, the Central superintendent, said the district now uses a Board of Cooperative Education Services computer program that provides a detailed item analysis of how students perform on major exams, as well as how they fare in individual teachers' classes.
Janet Goller, the Board of Education president, said the five component districts - Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore, North Merrick and Central - have made "tremendous strides" in communicating shared goals over the past five to six years. And, she said, that effort has yielded results on major exams.
Goldstein said he meets regularly with the four Bellmore-Merrick elementary assistant superintendents. "It's a pleasure to work with them," he said.
Caramore said that teachers from all five districts recently collaborated on curriculum-writing projects to create seamless lesson plans for grades five to eight. "You're going to see better [test] results in the future," Caramore said.
In other news...
€Caramore noted that the 2005 Bellmore-Merrick Scholarship Drive had brought in $31,000 to date, a little less than last year.
€Goller said the Board of Education plans to begin interviewing candidates for the Central District superintendent in May. Caramore announced earlier this year that he would retire at the end of July.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
