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Roselle Park reports rising ACCESS scores; 26 students eligible to exit multilingual program
Summary
District presenter reviewed 2024–25 ACCESS scores for multilingual learners, saying trends across grade bands and schools are improving and 26 students met the state threshold to exit the multilingual program.
Ms. Gamas, presenting the superintendent's report to the Roselle Park Board of Education, reviewed last year’s ACCESS assessment results for the district’s multilingual learners and said the results show improvement across grade bands and schools.
The ACCESS test measures listening, speaking, reading and writing. "Throughout the district, we have 227 students that were tested," Ms. Gamas said, and explained that the state uses an overall proficiency score to determine whether a student can exit multilingual services. "We're ultimately looking for students who receive a 4.5 or higher," she said, adding that this corresponds to a mid‑expanding level of proficiency.
The presentation included school‑level and subgroup breakdowns. Ms. Gamas said Sherman Elementary had the largest number of students eligible to exit this year and that, districtwide, 26 students met the 4.5 exit threshold. She added that a notable share of students scored near the threshold ("right on that cusp") and that the district is tracking those students for additional supports.
The presenter showed longitudinal charts comparing the current year with prior years by school, grade band and demographic subgroup. "Across the three years, we're really trending in that right direction," Ms. Gamas said, citing decreases in lower proficiency bands and increases in the developing/expanding bands. She noted that some displays in the slide deck did not show raw counts next to percentages but said the underlying state tables include those numbers.
Ms. Gamas described program and instructional changes the district is emphasizing for 2025–26: increased parent engagement nights, targeted professional development and an expansion of sheltered‑instruction strategies into middle and elementary grades so multilingual learners can access content alongside English‑proficient peers. "One of the main professional development pushes that we are doing this year…is pushing that down for the middle school and all of the elementary," she said.
She also noted that ACCESS results will be distributed to teachers — multilingual, general education and special education — to inform classroom instruction and intervention planning.
Board members did not take action on the ACCESS presentation; it was delivered as the superintendent's required reporting of assessment results.
