Assistant Superintendent Michelle presented Middletown's latest state assessment results to the school committee on Oct. 16, reporting gains across multiple assessments and highlighting subgroup and school-level improvements.

Michelle said the district recorded increases on RICAS (grades 3), the Next Generation Science Assessment and the SAT. Key figures she presented included a district RICAS English language arts (ELA) proficiency rate of 45.5 percent, an increase versus pre-COVID levels, and the district's largest gains on the SAT ELA (+13.8 percentage points). She also reported RICAS ELA up 8.7 points, RICAS math up 4.1 points, SAT math up 6.1 points and science up 1.3 points.

Michelle emphasized that the district looks at both proficiency and growth: "This is a snapshot in time that we know a lot of work and effort has gone behind..." (assistant superintendent Michelle, presentation). She described growth measures that compare students to their prior performance and noted the district showed "exceptional growth" in areas where growth is measured.

Subgroup and grade-level highlights included:
- Grade 3 ELA proficiency increased by 19.2 percentage points; grade 5 ELA increased by 17.4 points.
- Multilingual learners (MLL) rose from 8.6 percent meeting/exceeding proficiency last year to 20.6 percent this year in ELA; Michelle noted the district has more than 200 MLL students and credited professional development and MLL endorsements for teachers.
- Students with individual education plans (IEPs) increased meeting/exceeding from 8.9 percent to 12.1 percent; Michelle said the district remains focused on closing the gap with peers (peers were cited at 54.5 percent proficiency).

School-level gains called out in the presentation:
- Quinick School (principal present at the meeting) recorded very large increases: ELA up 22.7 points and math up 25.5 points, with roughly two-thirds of students meeting or exceeding standards in both subjects.
- Forest Avenue School reported ELA up 15.4 points and math up 5.6 points.
- GLA met the state's "5-5-5" benchmark (cutting chronic absenteeism by 5 percent and improving ELA and math proficiency by at least 5 percent) and was noted at the state commissioner's press conference.
- Middletown High School showed SAT gains: ELA up 13 percent and math up 5.7 percent; the high school's national ranking was also mentioned by school staff.

Committee Chair Greg Hewitt commented on the presentation: "The gains that you just went over are amazing," and thanked teachers and staff for the work behind the results.

Superintendent and staff framed the results as the product of sustained curriculum work, professional development (including a writing program called Empowering Writers), and efforts to address COVID-era learning loss. The presentation also noted that some science curriculum work is still being implemented but that science proficiency rose despite that.

The committee did not take any formal votes on the assessment report; the presentation was accepted as informational and used as context for ongoing curriculum and professional-development planning.