Curriculum staff reported end‑of‑year assessment results to the Englewood Board of Education on June 25, detailing student growth from the HMH growth measures administered across pre‑K through grade 10.

Jeanette Wendinsky and Michael Hellagers presented the data and said overall reading (students meeting or exceeding grade level) rose 5.6 percent districtwide for pre‑K‑3 through grade 10; overall math gains were larger, at 8.8 percent. Wendinsky summarized subgroup outcomes: multilingual learners made notable gains (13.7 percent in ELA; 14.7 percent in math), Black students improved (6.8 percent in ELA; 9.3 percent in math) and white students recorded double‑digit gains in ELA in some cohorts (11.1 percent in ELA; 2 percent in math in the cited example).

Wendinsky highlighted the district’s progress with students in the “significantly below” or tier‑3 category (students two or more years behind grade level). Using grade‑by‑grade comparisons, she reported large reductions in tier‑3 counts: kindergarten ELA — 67.8 percent of students previously in tier 3 were no longer in that category; kindergarten math — 82 percent left the significantly below category. Other grades showed smaller but material reductions: grade 2 reading 43.4 percent no longer tier 3; grade 6 reading 34.3 percent no longer tier 3; grade 5 math 23.7 percent left the significantly below category.

Wendinsky said the district attributed progress to a focus on small‑group instruction, adjusted schedules that built common planning time for teachers, interventionists who pulled students for targeted support, coaching, and professional development that emphasized point‑of‑need teaching. “We actually had the largest growth of our tier‑3 population this year due to these initiatives,” she told the board.

Presenters also explained the district will move away from the HMH Growth Measures because the vendor will discontinue that product. The district plans to adopt i‑Ready diagnostics for both ELA and math next year; staff said i‑Ready provides built‑in small‑group lesson plans that will reduce teacher data‑work and more directly connect diagnostics to instruction.

Board members asked about how the HMH results correlate with state summative tests (NJSLA) and year‑to‑year trends. Wendinsky said the HMH growth measures are adaptive, while the NJSLA is a grade‑level summative assessment, so direct one‑to‑one comparisons are not exact; she said the district will continue to provide comparison context. She also said HMH growth‑measure results are available to parents on Genesis under the assessment tab and that the curriculum office will post the comparative reports provided to the board.

Ending

Superintendent Dr. Hazleton and the curriculum team said they will post the presentation and the comparative reports and return with additional analyses in the fall (including WIDA access scores and other disaggregated measures). They also emphasized plans to train teachers on i‑Ready in time for the 2025–26 school year.