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Secaucus presenter says district largely recovered pre‑pandemic NJSLA performance
Summary
Felicia Chatrine, director of elementary education, told the board that Secaucus students showed gains on the 2023–24 NJSLA, with cohort students generally outperforming new arrivals and districtwide progress in math, ELA and science; the full presentation will be posted to the district website.
Felicia Chatrine, the district’s director of elementary education, told the Secaucus Board of Education that the district’s 2023–24 NJSLA results show strong recovery from pandemic-era declines and steady gains across grade levels. "We're getting back to the scores how they were before the pandemic," Chatrine said during a detailed presentation to the board.
Chatrine said the district compared its results both to statewide outcomes and to other districts in District Factor Group DE. She emphasized the distribution approach used in the presentation—focusing on the two highest categories (meeting and exceeding) versus the two lowest categories (not meeting and partially meeting)—and said the district is seeing higher percentages in the top levels and lower percentages in the bottom levels across many grades.
Highlighting math performance, Chatrine said that several elementary and middle‑school grade bands had roughly half of students in meeting/exceeding categories and that some middle‑school Algebra I and geometry cohorts showed very strong performance. "In algebra 1 and geometry in middle school, we have a 100% of our students in the meeting and exceeding category," she said, adding that the district recorded very low percentages in the not‑meeting categories for those cohorts.
Chatrine credited a set of curricular and instructional interventions for gains in mathematics: multi‑year Vail mathematics training for teachers, the Number Worlds supplemental curriculum in special education classrooms, the expansion of ALEKS into lower grades (with kindergarten planned for next year), family math nights, summer tutoring programs and LinkIt benchmark assessments that align closely with the NJSLA.
She also presented a cohort vs. non‑cohort analysis showing that students continuously enrolled in Secaucus schools tended to achieve higher meeting/exceeding rates, while students who were newly enrolled in the district scored lower on average. "We found that many of our students who are new to our district in that non‑cohort had a harder time on the NJSLA," Chatrine said, and she described plans to implement grade‑level baseline assessments for new arrivals and add targeted supports.
On ELA, Chatrine reported that several grades again had more than half of students in meeting/exceeding categories and outlined ELA investments, including Amplify CKLA at the elementary level, a CommonLit pilot for grades 6–12, DIBELS benchmarking for K–3, Boost Reading K–4 and departmentalizing third grade to strengthen instruction.
Chatrine said Secaucus students exceeded the state’s advanced‑proficiency (level 4) percentages in the three grades tested for science (5, 8 and 11) and that the district will introduce new science materials this year to sustain improvement. She closed by thanking teachers and staff and saying the full slide deck and data will be posted on the district website.
The board accepted the presentation as the education committee report for the month.
