LAVALLETTE — The Lavallette Board of Education heard a presentation from the superintendent covering the school’s 2024 spring New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) scores in English language arts (ELA), math and science.
Superintendent Lisa Gleason’s presented the NJSLA scores to the board. The test, which is intended to measure students against the state Department of Education’s (NJDOE) learning standards, was administered in spring 2024 to students in grades 3 through 8. The science portion is administered to students in grades 5 and 8 only.
The NJSLA ELA and math tests are scored on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being 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.
“For ELA, you can see that we show some strong growth in grades 5 to 8, particularly in our sixth grade, where 100% of our students met or exceeded expectations, as well as grade 8, where almost 90% of our students met or exceeded expectations,” she said. These sixth and eighth grade numbers can be compared to averages of 53.2% and 53.9% statewide, respectively. “We’re really starting to see that growth come back, which is great.”
“We still have some significant deficiencies in grades 3 and 4, which, again, followed through with those students who saw the greatest deficit during the pandemic with those foundational skills,” the superintendent said. “So, we’re really putting a lot of attention in those grade levels and in the curriculum for both ELA and math.”
In math, grades 4, 5 and 8 were cited as needing improvement, with the cohorts’ scores falling below the average of students in the state of New Jersey.
“You can see (in eighth grade) that, even though the state average is low, we didn’t hit that state average, and we should be much higher than that state average,” Gleason said. “We saw some growth in seventh grade (1.3% higher than state average).”
While some cohorts fell short of the state averages in math, they still demonstrated growth over previous years, said the superintendent. “We still see these persistent gaps in some of the grade levels, and we’ll talk about some of our action steps in a minute…(The growth) is not as significant as in ELA, which is why math continues to be our focus area.”
Gleason noted that despite the overall below average math scores, last year’s sixth-grade cohort showed remarkable growth, with 81.6% of students administered the test achieving a 4 or 5 compared to 36.2% statewide. She said, “We saw tremendous growth in sixth grade.”
In science, she said, the performance level descriptors for “meeting” and “exceeding” expectations are 3 and 4, respectively.
“In grade 5, we were at 31% of our students meeting or exceeding — the state average is 27%,” Gleason said. “In grade 8 — where there’s been such a dip with new standards — across the state there were only 18% of students that met expectations. We were at 42%, which is really strong.”
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Check out our other Lavallette stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Ocean Star, get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.