Haddonfield School District curriculum leaders presented 2024–25 New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) results to the Board of Education and described targeted steps to shore up a ninth‑grade cohort that showed a sizable decline.

Katie Russo, the district’s supervisor of language arts and social studies, said districtwide English language arts proficiency for grades 3–9 was 86.6% meeting or exceeding standards, notably higher than the district factor‑group five‑year average she cited. Russo highlighted substantial gains at multiple grade levels, including fourth grade and seventh grade where the district recorded significant increases in “exceeding” scores.

But Russo warned about one cohort that experienced declines in ninth‑grade performance: “This particular cohort has had our lowest performing scores in sixth grade and in seventh grade and then again in ninth grade,” she said, noting a negative 9.2 percentage‑point change at ninth grade and weaker subscores in writing, vocabulary and reading informational/technical texts. Russo said the cohort will be a focus as those students move into 10th grade and approach future graduation‑related assessments.

District staff described several concrete actions in response to the results: reinstituting a district benchmark (the LinkIt benchmark) as a practice and early warning tool, expanding small‑group interventions during tutorial periods, implementing an explicit district‑wide writing‑progression document for grades K–12, and emphasizing morphology and vocabulary instruction at the elementary level.

“Eighty‑six point six percent of our students scored in the meeting or exceeding range across all grade levels,” Russo said, adding that the district has exceeded pre‑COVID proficiency rates.

Russell, the district’s math and science lead, reported parallel results for mathematics and science. He said elementary math shows strong proficiency and that overall math meeting/exceeding rose by 3.3 percentage points year over year. He also said science proficiency is on an upward trajectory, with the district’s 2024–25 science scores the highest since the state first administered the exam; fifth‑grade science outperformed state averages and eighth‑grade science rebounded by 15 percentage points compared with the prior year.

Russell described specific steps for math and science: ongoing professional development for sixth‑grade teachers (the district implemented a new sixth‑grade math curriculum this year), weekly or frequent instructional coaching, small‑group targeted interventions using I‑Ready diagnostic data, and multi‑day professional development workshops to link phenomenon‑based science lessons to New Jersey Student Learning Standards.

Why it matters: The NJSLA is the state’s summative assessment and results are used for district self‑evaluation and program planning. Officials said the district has regained and exceeded pre‑COVID performance levels overall, but that the ninth‑grade cohort and the elementary→middle school transition (notably sixth grade) are priority areas for intervention.

What’s next: Staff said they will update the public presentation when the state releases peer‑district (district factor group) comparisons, and they will use benchmark and diagnostic data early in the year to identify students for intervention. The presentation noted that this was the last year Pearson administered the ELA/Math tests and that the state will use a new vendor, Cambium, and shift to an adaptive format in future administrations.

Ending note: Board members praised the detail and the district’s action plans; staff emphasized targeted practice in writing on demand, vocabulary in context, and sustained small‑group instruction as primary levers to raise cohort performance.