Rebecca Montgomery, a district curriculum presenter, told the Freehold Township School District Board of Education that the district’s alternate assessment (DLM) and statewide tests (NJSLA) show mixed results across small special-education populations and larger grade-level cohorts. Montgomery said 42 students took the DLM in 2025 and that about 46% of those students showed proficiency across measured areas, with 26% proficient in math on the alternate assessment.

Montgomery said the district’s NJSLA results showed 66% of students meeting or exceeding proficiency in English language arts, a 2.7 percentage-point increase from the prior year, and 60.5% meeting or exceeding proficiency in math, a 3.9 percentage-point gain. For science, Montgomery reported about 30% of students meeting or exceeding proficiency, up 5.2 points from last year. She said district results exceed state averages cited in the presentation (state figures reported by staff during the meeting: ELA ~53%, math ~41.9%, science ~26.7).

Why the data matters: Montgomery framed the results as evidence of cohort growth and of long-term recovery from pre-pandemic declines, emphasizing the difference between single-year variability and multi-year cohort progress. She said cohort tracking shows students often improve as they advance a grade, producing steady increases in proficiency across several cohorts.

Key subgroup findings and limitations: Montgomery warned that small subgroup sizes require data suppression in some tables (district staff noted that when fewer than 10 students were tested at a grade/content level the numbers are not publicly reported). She summarized subgroup outcomes presented to the board: Hispanic students were the largest tested subgroup and showed steady growth in ELA and math; Black students showed notable gains in math and science; male and female proficiency rates differed by subject (for example, females higher in ELA, males higher in math and science in the district data presented). Montgomery also said 16 of the 42 DLM-tested students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch.

Planned district actions: Montgomery outlined curricular and assessment steps the district is taking to sustain and accelerate gains: expanded implementation of foundational reading programs (K–2 currently, exploring grade 3 for 2026–27), continued use of i-Ready (i-Ready/MyPath) for personalized instruction, phased rollouts of the Envision math curriculum (grades 3–8 in stages), expanded online common assessments in the LinkIt platform, and full implementation of Mystery Science in K–5 with middle-school “science celebration” events in development. She said the district is building three-dimensional, standards-aligned science assessments in LinkIt to better reflect state tasks and to provide practice for students.

Board discussion and caveats: Board members asked whether low science proficiency reflects instruction, time on task, or the state assessment. Montgomery and other staff replied that district schedules provide regular science instruction and that much of the disparity appears tied to the assessment itself: district staff described a statewide decline when the science test changed a few years ago and urged the state to revisit the assessment design. Staff also emphasized continuing local steps—curriculum alignment, professional development, common assessments and MTSS supports—to raise proficiency regardless of assessment changes.

What’s next: Montgomery said the district will continue to use cohort analyses and LinkIt-based common assessments to drive instruction and professional development, and that the curriculum team will present implementation milestones as foundations and Envision rollouts proceed. Board members and staff said they will continue to monitor subgroup outcomes, DLM suppression impacts and how Mystery Science and other resources affect engagement and performance.