Board hears concerns that NJGPA-A may not fairly measure multilingual learners and students with disabilities

Board members pressed district staff on whether the adaptive NJGPA fairly measures multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

"It's not actually assessing their graduation readiness. It's assessing whether or not they can read and write it in English," a presenter said during the discussion on English-language learners. The board heard that the NJGPA is only administered in English; the WIDA assessment remains the district'used measure of English-language proficiency. Presenters said portfolios allow translation for review purposes and that intensive local supports (boot camps, targeted lessons and portfolio preparation) are in place to assist students who do not meet the initial cutoff.

Presenters highlighted subgroup scores: for ELA the district reported 86.5% graduation-ready overall while multilingual learners showed a 70% passing rate; for math multilingual learners passed at 28% and students with disabilities passed at 33% in math (both well below district averages). District staff described fall boot camps, lab-based algebra support, and curriculum alignment as combined interventions to raise proficiency. Board members said the data showed both success and significant gaps that merit targeted follow-up.

The district did not propose a policy change at the meeting; instead, administrators pledged continued programmatic interventions and further analysis once performance-level descriptors from the state are released.