Academic Goals: Shauna’s Notes on the 05/30/2024 BOE MeetingPhoto bycanva

Academic Goals -this is what is at the heart of every district, and there has been a lot of recent discussion about the Berkeley Heights Public School rankings. Data given at the May 30th Board of Education meeting shows that we have made modest-to-significant improvements during the last period for which we have reports. The tools and exams used to measure this are discussed below.

Mr. Nixon, Ms. Seminario, and the building principals gave an update on District Goals.

The evaluation for grades K-5 included metrics from iReady Math and the Heggerty assessment for this academic year. Spring data was still being collected at the time of the presentation. Data for grades 6-8 was gathered from the NJSLA, LinkIt, and iReady. Data collection for grades 9-12 appears to be more challenging to collate, possibly due to the variety of sources reporting: the NJSLA, NJGPA, and pSATs. Gaps in data collection due to a pause in testing during the pandemic may still play a role.

What stood out at every grade level was that each presentation covered “targeted instruction”. A separate article will explore the nuanced relationship between inclusion and targeted instruction, but for clarity of this article the focus will remain on what is being done in our schools to measure and improve academic performance.

The students in grades 5-8 were identified for targeted instruction and received support in a “small windows of time”. What this referred to wasn’t clear from the presentation.

A mention was made of “Better Questioning Techniques,” asking questions that force students to demonstrate more knowledge of what they’re doing. As this was also mentioned during the DEI presentation. I’ll try to gather more information about the teacher training surrounding this, the implementation, and how it relates to the gender disparities mentioned in the DEI presentation.

“Macro Planning” time was shown on one slide, but there was no complete explanation. I wonder whether this relates back to the “windows of time”.

Modest gains were shown at the middle school in ELA. Math was not included in the charts shown, so any gains (or losses) will need to be looked into.

At the high school level, no numbers were shared, but there were items discussed that I feel show the GL administrators are looking critically at ways to improve student outcomes and are implementing new strategies that seem to have promise. Mr. Nixon reported that the current Academic Strategies classes have few students participating for reasons that are probably varied. In response, an initiative called EMStA (English and Math Strategies Application) was implemented, in which students receive support during half the lunch period, once per rotation.

This is the same way science labs are run.

To me, this makes much more sense and will reach students more effectively than trying to get students to attend extended-day sessions, which can interfere with after-school activities or require a before-school transportation change, which (again, in my opinion) begin to make the academic day too long.

All 12th-grade students who had not met a pathway to graduation were included in this program, so we can see indications of success if each of these students meets graduation requirements. It wasn’t clear if this program would have separate tracking metrics.

All in all, Berkeley Heights Public Schools appears to be headed in a better direction. When additional numbers showing gains or losses in areas that were not covered are available, we will have a fuller picture. In the meantime, it was reassuring to hear how our teachers and building administrators are handling the progress of our kids.

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