Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Assessments I Ready topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Freehold Township reports large year-over-year gains on i‑Ready benchmarks; district readies early literacy screening
Summary
District leaders told the board that K–8 students made substantial gains on the i‑Ready diagnostic and personalized MyPath lessons this year, with marked reductions in students multiple grade levels below standards; the district said it will use i‑Ready to meet upcoming New Jersey early literacy screening requirements.
Freehold Township School District officials reported substantial student gains on the district’s first full year using the i‑Ready benchmark and MyPath personalized instruction, and said the i‑Ready platform will satisfy the State of New Jersey’s new early literacy screening requirements.
The district presentation to the board said fall-to-spring diagnostic results show a rise in students meeting or exceeding grade-level standards and a marked reduction in students two or more grade levels below. Districtwide, the presenter said about 44% of students were at or above grade level on the fall diagnostic; by spring the combined “mid or above” and “early on grade level” groups rose to about 71% (47% mid/above plus 24% early on grade level). The share of students two or three or more grade levels below reading dropped from about 19% in the fall to about 10% in the spring, the presentation said.
Supervisors framed the gains as the result of three factors: tiered core curriculum and first‑instruction programs (Foundations in K–1 and Envisions in elementary math), targeted interventions through the district MTSS structure, and time students spent on the i‑Ready MyPath lessons. The district reported average MyPath lesson time per student of about 10 hours and 41 minutes for the year and said students who spent the recommended 30–45 minutes per week on MyPath made about 136% of their “typical growth” target, meaning many of those students exceeded growth expectations.
District-level goal outcomes presented included: kindergarten 91% and first grade 82% attainment of foundational reading goals; second grade foundational reading goal at 94%; elementary math goals met at rates ranging from 90% to 97% (third 95%, fourth 90%, fifth 97%); and middle‑school language arts goal at 87% achievement. Presenters said first‑grade pacing this year was slower than recommended because those students had not received Foundations in kindergarten; the district expects pacing alignment next year after broader implementation.
Presenters also summarized subject‑area diagnostic performance: gains in high‑frequency word fluency, persistent work needed on vocabulary and comprehension, and notable gains in math across district grade levels. The board was shown comparative i‑Ready data indicating the district’s spring performance exceeded other New Jersey i‑Ready districts and national i‑Ready norms, which the presenter said reflects stronger green (proficient) bands on the diagnostic charts.
The superintendent and curriculum staff described how i‑Ready’s MyPath flags lessons that students fail repeatedly so teachers can intervene, and noted that the platform includes Spanish language assessments and pathways for multilingual students. The district said additional literacy tasks recommended by the New Jersey literacy framework are included in its current i‑Ready license at no extra cost and that staff will be trained to administer those screening tasks in K–3 beginning next school year.
On student climate and safety, administrators reported the district’s HIB (Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) self‑assessment scores met the maximum (78) for all schools and that the district logged seven confirmed bullying incidents this year. Cumulative HIB reports fell from 84 last year to 58 this year, a 31% decrease; the largest single‑school decrease was at Barkalo/Barkalow (district transcript spelling inconsistent) with more than a 10‑case drop, and Donovan and West Freehold showed decreases of four or more cases each, district staff said.
Board members and staff praised teachers, instructional coaches and building leaders for implementation work, noting the move to new curricula in multiple grades and the district’s full rollout of i‑Ready diagnostics and MyPath within one year.
Looking forward, presenters said the district will continue to recommend two successfully passed MyPath lessons per subject each week and provide guidance to middle‑school teachers on finding time for MyPath work. They also said the district will adopt the additional literacy screening tasks in i‑Ready to meet the state’s new early literacy screening guidelines for kindergarten through third grade.
No formal board action on curriculum or assessment was taken during the presentation; staff described the report and fielded questions about benchmarks, pacing, and comparisons to state and national norms.
