District presents high NJSLA proficiency; board presses for student‑level growth data and early‑literacy targets

At its Nov. 18 meeting the Montgomery Township Board of Education received the district’s spring assessment briefing. Presenter Fiona Gorlin explained two assessment streams: Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) for students with significant intellectual disabilities (not publicly reported where n<10) and the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA), which the district reported in proficiency bands and three‑year cohort comparisons.

Gorlin said the district typically exceeds statewide proficiency in English language arts by roughly 30 percentage points and in some math areas by as much as 50 percentage points. She highlighted a roughly 12‑ to 13‑point year‑over‑year improvement in grade 8 math and said grades 6–9 exceeded an 80% proficiency mark used by the state as an aspirational line. She also described subgroup reporting caveats: small subgroup sizes (under 10 or under 50) can make year‑to‑year swings unreliable and therefore some data points are suppressed.

Board members asked whether the NJSLA presentation measures individual student growth. Gorlin said student growth percentiles (SGP) are available but were not included in this proficiency presentation; the slides focused on proficiency and cohort comparisons as required by state reporting. Board members pressed for measurable targets, especially for early literacy (K‑3). Gorlin said the state’s new K‑3 literacy screening data will be posted to the parent portal by the end of the month and that the district uses Renaissance/STAR and other local benchmarks to measure growth across the year (multiple administrations). She cautioned that the NJSLA format and multi‑grade science standards make direct comparisons different from math and ELA. The administration declined to commit to a single percentage goal for third grade at the podium, saying the district prefers to analyze recent early‑literacy screener results and then recommend targeted goals.

During the discussion Dr. Wang and other board members urged regular public reporting of baseline and post‑assessment growth so the board can evaluate interventions and budget decisions; other board members and administrators said growth data is used internally and cautioned about conflating proficiency snapshots with year‑to‑year growth measures. The administration said it will continue to present statewide proficiency while the board may request additional growth reporting in future meetings.