Red Bank Middle Designated a "Focus" School

Red Bank Middle School has been designated a Focus School, according to a recent report released by Gov. Chris Christie's office.

The focus designation means that the school has been identified as showing room for improvement and will receive "targeted and tailored solutions" to meet the school's needs. The borough's middle school is one of 183 Focus schools in the state.

's designation is based on one or more of multiple factors, including having a low-performing subgroup of students, and a large in school gap between the highest performing students and the lowest performing students.

The designations are part of New Jersey’s waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Red Bank State Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-11, lauded the move, saying the initiative gives greater freedom to high-performing schools and more assistance to improve low-performing schools.

"One of our primary jobs is to ensure that our students are receiving the best education possible,” Beck said in a release. “This new program is an adaptive and quantitative way to measure a school's success and provide aid where needed. Fixing our schools is not a one-size-fits-all undertaking.”

Beck has spoken out about the lack of state aid made available to Red Bank. Currently, Red Bank is one of just 14 districts in the state funded at 20 percent below adequacy, a figure determined by the state.

It's unclear as of right now what kind of aid Red Bank Middle School will receive, though according to the state it will fall into one of eight different principles: School Climate and Culture, School Leadership, Standards Aligned Curriculum, Assessment and Intervention System, Instruction, Use of Time, Use of Data, Staffing Practices and Family and Community Engagement.

The State has instituted three separate school designations. In addition to Focus Schools, there are Priority Schools - the lowest performing schools in the state - and Reward Schools - the highest performing schools in New Jersey. A majority of schools in the state do not fall in to the three designations, however. In Monmouth County,  there are four Focus Schools, including Red Bank Middle School, four Reward Schools, and one Priority School, Asbury Park Middle School.