Roxbury superintendent: 52% of students met language-arts proficiency on 2025 NJSLA; district outlines targeted interventions

Superintendent Frank Santora told the Roxbury Township Board of Education on Oct. 13 that district students scored “52 percent” proficient on the 2025 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA) language-arts test and that math and science results showed areas needing targeted attention.

Santora opened a 40‑minute presentation by explaining score levels and showing district trends by grade, subject and subgroup. “When you take those two metrics and combine them, that is what's considered our proficiency rating for this particular area,” he said while reviewing language-arts and math distributions.

The nut graf: The results show mixed performance across grades and demographic groups and prompted the district to expand direct instructional supports. Santora described adjustments aimed at raising proficiency — especially in math and science — including increased in‑support‑of‑learning (ISL) staffing, two pilot elementary ELA programs, expanded use of benchmark tools (IXL and LinkIt), and committee review of science course sequencing.

Most important findings and district response

- Language arts: Santora said 52 percent of assessed students scored at the proficiency levels (meeting or exceeding). He reported 1,767 students tested in language arts in 2025. Santora noted Roxbury’s combined level‑4 (meeting) percentage was 40 percent compared with roughly 37 percent statewide for the same metric, and that “approximately 12 percent” of Roxbury students scored at level 5 (exceeding) while the state’s level‑5 rate was higher (about 16 percent).

- Mathematics: Santora reported 1,783 students were assessed in math and said the district’s level‑4 percentage was about 35.2 percent and level‑5 about 3.6 percent. He highlighted strong middle‑school Algebra I and high‑school geometry proficiency (more than 60 percent meeting or exceeding in those courses).

- Science: Santora said 749 students were tested in grades 5, 8 and 11 and described science as “an area of depressed performance” historically for the district and statewide. He said science assesses standards spanning multiple courses, making course sequence and curricular alignment a priority for review.

- Subgroup gaps: Santora displayed subgroup data by race and program. He reported variability across groups (for example, 46 percent meeting and 21 percent exceeding among Asian students in language arts versus 25 percent meeting and 8 percent exceeding among students identifying as Black). He also flagged lower performance among English‑language learners and students receiving special‑education services and said the district must weigh standardized results against students’ broader needs.

Steps the district has taken or will take

Santora listed immediate and planned actions: - Expanded ISL services and scheduling changes to allow ISL teachers to serve tier‑2 as well as tier‑3 students at elementary and secondary levels. - Piloting two elementary ELA programs intended to provide more explicit instruction in vocabulary, comprehension and written expression; the district aims to select a core program for the coming year. - Continued use of benchmarking tools IXL (adaptive) and LinkIt (benchmarking) to generate item‑level and standard‑aligned diagnostic data and to create targeted intervention plans. - Professional learning days and data‑team work to align instruction, interventions and assessments; Santora thanked staff for a full day of professional development devoted to data analysis and intervention planning. - A science committee of supervisors and teachers will evaluate the district’s 6–12 science course sequence and instructional pacing to better align standards and instruction with the state assessment.

Board questions and clarification

Board member Myrna Hernandez asked about the state’s shift to an adaptive NJSLA format and how district preparation aligns with that change. Santora said the Department of Education issued a memo about switching to the NJSLA Adaptive and described the field test process. “The standards remain the same,” he said, and added that parallel use of adaptive and fixed benchmarking tools helps the district plan instruction and technology exposure. Santora also said parents would receive notification about field testing windows and encouraged students to treat field tests seriously for the experience even though district staff will not receive field‑test scores.

Santora addressed a question about grade‑level differences in early grades and noted that multiple causes are examined in the data teams — curriculum alignment, exposure to item types and timing of benchmark administration — and that the piloted ELA materials respond directly to identified curricular gaps.

Why it matters

Standardized assessments are one objective data point the district uses to gauge standards mastery across schools, courses and student groups. The board heard that some grades and subgroups are performing near or above state averages in specific courses, while math and science proficiency rates remain areas of focus. Santora emphasized that assessments inform targeted instruction rather than serve as the only measure of student progress.

Ending

Santora closed by recognizing staff work and reiterated the district will continue using multiple measures — benchmark tools, teacher judgment and targeted interventions — to raise proficiency. He said the district will return to the board with further analysis as program pilots and science‑sequence reviews progress.