Bound Brook administrators point to NJGPA gains, outline tutoring and schedule changes to boost graduation readiness

Bound Brook Board of Education administrators presented preliminary New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) results and a set of interventions the district says are driving improvements in graduation readiness.

Presenter (unnamed), the district administrator leading the presentation, said the district tested a broader group this year — including students not on the on‑pace grade‑11 cohort — to capture off‑cohort students and those credit‑shy. The presenter said the NJGPA cutoff for graduation readiness is 725 and that the district is focusing targeted supports on students scoring between roughly 690 and 724.

“What you're going to hear is our character at BBHS is built on intentions for student success,” the presenter said, summarizing the district’s strategy to pair diagnostic testing with supports. The presenter highlighted a 16‑point increase in the math mean for the on‑pace 11th‑grade cohort (the group the district tracks as the graduating class of 2026) and said that, among students who attended the NJGPA tutoring sessions, "66 percent of them demonstrated graduation readiness." The presentation also showed growth in reasoning and modeling subscales in math and gains in ELA mean scores for the eleventh‑grade cohort.

The administration described concrete steps it has taken and plans to continue: providing NJGPA tutoring (including a fall test window in October and summer testing), expanding ASI (Academic Support and Intervention) classes across English and math, moving the alternative program from after school to daytime hours, and a rotating schedule that reduces students’ course load from eight to seven to create structured study/ASI periods. The presenter said those changes increase instruction time and contact with teachers — from 6,700 to roughly 8,100 instructional minutes per year — and create opportunities for intensive, targeted supports.

Board members asked for baseline context and dropout metrics; the presenter said the district implemented ASI this year at the high school level, added focused tutoring run by the supervisor of math, and used multiple data sources (benchmarks, NJSLA, NJGPA) to identify students for ASI placement. When one board member praised the administration, another asked how many rising seniors were currently on track: the presenter said, for the graduating class of 2026, about 169 students make up that cohort and identified roughly 40 students with ELA concerns and about 100 in math who will be retested in the fall.

The presenter also explained alternative pathways to demonstrate graduation readiness (PSAT/SAT results or an alternative portfolio process) but said the district’s primary aim is to have students pass the NJGPA so they do not require a portfolio.

Next steps the board heard: the district will offer fall NJGPA testing in October, continue ASI and tutoring offerings (expanded this year to include English tutoring), implement the rotating schedule and new intermediate/integrated math courses to capture students who need the 3‑year math graduation requirement, and finalize cohort graduation rates once NJ Smart uploads are complete. The presenter described preliminary estimates that the cohort graduation rate could be between 90% and 95% and said, "We could be at 95% or higher," while acknowledging state verification is pending.

The board did not take formal action on the presentation; administrators said programs that produced the gains will continue into 2025–26.