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West Orange board hears 2024 state assessment report; middle-school math flagged for focused action
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Evany Dandes told the board the district outperformed the state in several grade spans but that math performance in grades 6'8 remains a critical challenge. The board asked for a targeted analysis of middle school implementation and monitoring plans.
Assistant Superintendent Evany Dandes presented West Orange Public Schools'disaggregated results from the 2024 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments on Monday, highlighting district'level growth in English language arts and elementary math but flagging persistent weaknesses in middle'school math.
"Across grades 3 through 5 the district is outperforming the state, and our gap has widened to 13.4 percentage points," Dandes said, noting that 63.1% of third graders met or exceeded math proficiency and that, across cohorts, about 28% of students in the "approaching" category move into "met/exceeded" over two years. She said Algebra I proficiency districtwide is 35%; Algebra II 33.3%; and geometry 72%.
Why it matters: board members said those headline figures mask urgent local challenges in the 6'8 span, where reduced instructional minutes and the transition from elementary to middle school appear to coincide with lower proficiency. The board directed district staff to deliver a school'level analysis and a short-term monitoring timeline.
Dandes described interventions the district is using to accelerate growth: full implementation of the I-Ready diagnostic and myPath individualized instruction, after'school math supports three times weekly (December'May), instructional coaching and principal'led math improvement teams. "We are working on fidelity of implementation," she said, adding consultants will model lessons and help principals align classroom practice to the program'level expectations.
Board response and follow'up: Members asked for more granular evidence of how the curriculum and daily instruction align ("what Fidelity looks like in the classroom"), for clearer disaggregation by school and grade, and for measurable timelines and progress markers. Dr Bryant described the math results as "sobering" and asked for immediate supports for the roughly 70% of students not yet proficient in math; Mr Stevenson pressed for concrete monitoring and for data by school to assess the impact of the fifth'to'sixth'grade transition.
Public comment: Adam Kramer, a local taxpayer, urged stronger accountability and suggested longer math blocks and performance incentives tied to tax dollars. Kramer said the results "are extremely disappointing" and pressed the board on whether the district's spending is delivering results.
What happens next: The board requested a focused analysis of middle'school math implementation, a description of fidelity metrics used during classroom observations, and a timeline for measurable progress reporting. The superintendent and curriculum office said they would return with more detailed school'level breakdowns and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time'bound) targets.
Provenance: The presentation and Q&A are drawn from the assistant superintendent'led segment of the meeting (topic introduction SEG 379; presentation conclusion SEG 1200).
