Galloway board hears spring test results; approves K'2 phonics curriculum for K'2

Miss Napoli, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, presented spring 2025 assessment results to the Galloway Township Public School District Board of Education on Sept. 8, describing results from Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM), ACCESS for ELLs and the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA).

"This assessment is given to a small percentage of our students," Napoli said of DLM, adding that only about 1% of the district participates in that assessment. Napoli told the board that overall passing rates were modest but that growth measures were stronger: "Although the passing percentage overall for us was 33% in the area of ELA, 66 percent of the students improved from prior years." She said similar patterns appear in mathematics (overall passing about 32%) but noted cohort and longitudinal gains for students who remain in the district longer.

Napoli highlighted subgroup reporting and cohort analysis used to track progress. "For students that have been with us for over 5 years in Galloway, they have a 10% boost in scores compared to kids that just came to Galloway," she said, and reported that 85% of students who arrived from other districts showed measurable growth as well.

Board members asked whether the district could recreate historic district-factor comparisons and whether the presentation slides included absolute student counts. A board member asked, "On the NJ School Report Card, there are performance reports and downloadable Excel files. Are there ways to recreate some of it so that we would get a feel for similar districts?" Napoli responded that district- and state-level reports will be used and that grade-level charts with counts exist and can be shared once the school report card is posted.

As a curricular response, Napoli described instructional strategies the district is expanding to address reading and math gaps. She said the district will adopt UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) phonics instruction for all K'2 students this year and will continue work on multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), targeted math supports, extended school-year services for special education and expanded preschool. "If teachers use it to fidelity, they see amazing strides with students," Napoli said of the phonics program.

The presentation and a short Q&A took approximately the first third of the meeting. Napoli and administration noted that the slides represented preliminary data and that more detailed reports will follow when state releases the school report card.