By BILL SHRALOW and FRANK KUMMER
Courier-Post Staff

Tests scores for high school students in local Abbott districts improved significantly last year, though the special-needs systems continue to languish at or near the bottom among tri-county schools, state data released Thursday show.

Four of five high schools in tri-county Abbott districts saw their passing rate rise by 7 percentage points or more. Burlington City, Gloucester City and Pemberton Township high schools, along with Woodrow Wilson High in Camden, saw more students pass all three sections of the 11th-grade test - reading, math and writing - than in 1999-2000.

"We're pleased with the results, but we won't be satisfied until all students pass with flying colors," said Tom Bauer, spokesman for Pemberton Township schools, where the high school led the way with an 11.7 percentage point passing rate jump.

Among tri-county Abbott districts, only Camden High saw a downturn, falling 3.9 percent.

Washington Township High School was also among the most improved, jumping 8.8 percentage points to break into the top 10 among tri-county high schools.

Other test results show area elementary schools reflecting a statewide trend in which scores shot up 24 percentage points on the writing section of the fourth- grade test. But it will take another year of data before any conclusions about improvement can be drawn, educators said. That's because state education officials acknowledge at least part of the gain could be due to a change in the scoring system, though they denied lowering standards to inflate scores. The state revamped scoring after districts across New Jersey complained that writing section results fell way below proficiency levels recorded on the science and math portions.

The state Department of Education on Thursday released district-by-district results of standardized tests taken during the 2000-01 school year. They include the Elementary School Proficiency Assessment for fourth-graders, the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment and the High School Proficiency Test taken in 11th grade.

The latest high school scores, for the class of 2002, mark the end of an era. This spring, juniors in the class of 2003 will take the new, harder High School Proficiency Assessment. While the fourth- and eighth- grade tests are used only to determine which students need extra help, most students must pass all three sections of the 11th-grade test to graduate.

Bauer, the Pemberton Township spokesman, said last year' s improvement reflects changes the district has put in place over the past few years. All ninth- and 10th-graders take the Stanford 9, a nationally distributed assessment test the district administers even though the state does not require it. The test allows the district to identify children who need help. They are then required to take tutoring or basic skills instruction.

Pemberton Township ranked highest among the local Abbott high schools - 37th of 53 tri-county high schools overall - with 73.4 percent of students passing all three sections. That outpaced such high schools as Highland High (72.2) in Gloucester Township; Audubon High (69.1); and the former Lower Camden County Regional high schools - Edgewood (69.3) in Winslow, and Overbrook (68.8) in Pine Hill. The regional district has since been dissolved and local high schools created.

Burlington City High School ranked 40th in the tri- county region at 71.6 percent, up 8.4 points. Gloucester City High School ranked 47th at 62.9, up 8 points. And Woodrow Wilson ranked 52nd at 34.6, up 7.1 points.

Camden High ranked last at 22.4 percent.

The data confirm what is generally common knowledge: The wealthiest districts score the highest.

The 11th-grade test passage rate for districts in the state's wealthiest classification was 96 percent, compared to 46 percent for the poorest districts.

Washington Township's gain of nearly nine points placed it ninth overall in the tri-county area, joining such perennial front-runners as Haddonfield, Medford, Cherry Hill East, Lenape and Eastern Regional. While Washington Township's reading scores were up slightly and math scores down a bit, the big gain came in writing, where 97.7 percent passed, compared to 86.4 percent last year.

"We attribute that to additional special development for teachers in improving students' writing," district spokeswoman Alice Coghill said. "We're thrilled. Nine points in one year is a tribute to the hard work of the staff and students."

On the elementary level, local schools, like those statewide, saw big gains in writing scores. Glendora Elementary School in Gloucester Township, for example, saw its language arts passing rate rise from 62.2 percent in 1999-2000 to 97.6 percent last year. The school also fell in line with a statewide trend of a slight increase in science scores and a small decrease in math scores. At Glendora, 100 percent of students were proficient or advanced proficient in science, up from 94.6 percent. Math scores dipped from 78.4 percent to 75.6 percent.

Statewide, eighth-grade test scores varied just slightly from the previous year.