AVON-BY-THE-SEA — Standardized test scores have improved in the district, the Avon Board of Education revealed at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Scores from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) were presented in language arts, math and science, as well as scores from the i-Ready diagnostic assessment.
The NJSLA English language arts (ELA) and math tests are scored on a scale of 1-5, with 1 the lowest and 5 the highest. Scores denote the following: 1, did not yet meet expectations; 2, partially met expectations; 3, approached expectations; 4, met expectations; 5 exceeded expectations. Grade levels are for the 2023-2024 school year.
Eileen MacDonald, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and special services, presented the test scores, which broadly showed general improvement, particularly in ELA and math, as well as improvements over pre-pandemic scores.
In ELA, every grade level showed growth across all reading domains, according to MacDonald. Additionally, in middle school-aged students, 90% to 100% of the cohorts met or exceeded expectations (received a 3 or better) on the NJSLA — 100% of seventh-graders achieved this level. Additionally, 100% of i-Ready test-takers in kindergarten and third grade met or exceeded those expectations.
“Fluency is something that we’re focusing on in both reading and math,” she said. “We’re looking at it through a couple different lenses, like how we can start to identify programming shifts that we can make to better support reading fluency in the classroom.”
“We have a new ELA program adoption in kindergarten through second grade, and that definitely focuses on that fluency aspect of instruction that, I think, is going to start to make some really great shifts for our students in their performance,” said MacDonald.
For math, MacDonald highlighted the fact that, in every grade that took it, the percentage of students who met or exceeded the NJSLA math assessment’s expectations was higher than the New Jersey average. According to MacDonald’s presentation, kids in grades 4 through 8 also outperformed the school’s pre-pandemic math achievement. Also highlighted was the students’ particular strength with geometry and numbers/operations, as shown by i-Ready.
In math specifically, MacDonald said that one of the largest focus areas for improvement is the targeted instruction of computation and fractions.
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