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Hillsborough board cites assessment gains, unveils public strategic‑plan dashboard
Summary
At its Oct. 28 meeting, the Hillsborough Township Board of Education reviewed 2024 state assessment results showing gains in several grades, heard about Dynamic Learning Maps outcomes for students with significant cognitive disabilities, and previewed a public strategic‑plan dashboard and indicators that will let residents track progress.
The Hillsborough Township Board of Education on Oct. 28 reviewed 2024 student assessment results and previewed a new public strategic‑plan dashboard designed to show progress on district goals.
Superintendent said the district saw improvements on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA) across multiple grades and emphasized that targeted interventions introduced since the pandemic are supporting recovery. “We saw an increase in the number of students who met and exceeded expectations in grades 3 through six and grade nine,” Dr Feltre said during the presentation of state assessment and Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) results.
The dashboard — organized under three “big buckets” (Student Success; Culture for Learning; Facilities and Resource Management) — will present high‑level indicators such as student participation, performance on state assessments, IEP goal attainment and financial indicators like fund balance. The superintendent said some indicator pages will let users drill down to administrative tasks and linked artifacts; the director of technology, Mr Handler, is the point person listed for several strategies.
Board members pressed administration on middle‑school science proficiency after Dr Feltre cited a low percentage for grade‑banded results in middle grades. One member asked why grade‑banded science results appeared particularly low for the middle grades; Dr Feltre attributed part of the gap to pandemic disruptions in hands‑on science instruction and said the district is investigating alignment between curriculum, resources and what the state assessment asks students to demonstrate. “Nobody really knows,” he said of the statewide discussion about test validity, adding the district is reviewing resources and alignment.
The presentation also included a Data Privacy note: subgroup results are not reported when fewer than 10 students were tested for a subgroup to protect confidentiality, a constraint Dr Feltre repeated while reviewing DLM reporting for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
Superintendent closed by reminding the public that the district will host a Community Engagement Night on Nov. 14 at Auten Road Intermediate School to discuss topics including unarmed security staff and to offer board members an opportunity for informal dialogue with residents. The dashboard will be posted on the district website once baseline indicators are finalized.
Looking ahead, administrators said they will continue to monitor indicator trends semester‑to‑semester and share periodic updates at board meetings.
