High School Rankings
from US NEWS and World Report
May, 2015

First, let me start with this letter to East Orange Parents and Students from Dr. Gloria Scott, as posted on the East Orange District Web Site.

Dear East Orange School District Staff, Parents, and Community:

Greetings, and welcome back to the 2015-2016 school year... etc., etc. you can read the full letter on the web site, if it hasn't been erased.

The U.S. News and World Report published an article entitled U.S. Best High Schools that ranked more than 21, 000 public high schools in 50 states, and the District of Columbia. They award schools a gold, silver, or bronze medal based on their state assessments and how well they prepare students for college. Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts and East Orange STEM Academy were both nationally recognized and received a bronze medal. This is directly a result of your hard work and dedication to our students. On behalf of the central office staff, I promise that we will continue to support your ability to make great things happen.

More blah, blah, blah which you can read for yourself if you wish.

Sincerely,
Dr. Gloria Scott, Superintendent

Although the East Orange District Web Site is (obviously) on the Web, she does not link to these reports, which made me suspicious. I already know that none of the East Orange schools were mentioned in the recent (August 19, 2015) NEWSWEEK list of top 500 High Schools nationwide. See how I link directly to the source, Dr. Scott? It's easy. Even someone with a PhD can do it.

I researched the US. News and World Report site, looking for these mysterious bronze medals. In the original article, dated May 12, 2015, there is no mention of bronze medals at all, only gold and silver. In an earlier article entitled "How States Compare in the 2015 Best High Schools Rankings" there is a brief mention that Bronze medals did not count in the ranking. In other words, Bronze medals are participation trophies and no one pays any attention to them except desperate superintendents trying to account for why they spend so much taxpayer money with so little to show for it.

The real data about each of the East Orange High Schools, which Dr. Scott did not want you to see, is HERE on Page 4 of the NJ Ranking List where there are no mentions of bronze medals, just stark facts. Look at the list carefully and you will see that East Orange schools have been dumped into the Alphabetical Order list of all the other schools that didn't make the top 58.

Each school can also be looked at individually, without comparison to anyone else:

Cicely Tyson High School

STEM Academy High School

East Orange Campus High

But we knew all of this last January from the High School Rankings for 2014. Nothing has changed EXCEPT Dr. Gloria Scott was paid more this year than last year, as were all the school administrators and teachers, so the cost per student was increased. The only two persons in the school district who have a KNOWN and PUBLIC track record for getting East Orange Students accepted into colleges WERE former Football Coach Marion Bell, and former Marching Band Director Frederick Goode, both of whom were recently terminated for reasons unknown.

Update: 09/22/15

Niche.com came out with its ranking of schools and we find that East Orange Schools rank 246th in the State of New Jersey. The part of the report that is shocking to me, and should be to anyone who lives in and pays taxes to East Orange, is this:

Every year we pay more and more expenses per student. You would think that Dr. Gloria Scott could use that money to find competent teachers of reading and math for our district. The highest salaries are paid to administrators (like Dr. Scott) and not teachers. How many years will it take this incompetent superintendent to learn to do the job for which she was hired... by the taxpayers, not the equally incompetent school board that was appointed by mayors. Every year of her tenure as superintendent has seen expenses per student rise and proficiency in math and reading fall or stay the same. How many years will the taxpayers put up with it?

If any of the above statements or information is NOT TRUE, then prove it to me and I will make corrections. We only want the TRUE NEWS for an East Orange that has been fed lies and deception for years. [email protected]

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