Dear Monroe Township School District (Middlesex),

This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:

Any and all information, records, data, or reports presented at the August 8th, 2023 MTBOE Curriculum Committee Meeting, with regards to Final Exam findings.

Yours faithfully,

Anonymous

Dear Lisa Goldstein,
Thank you for the information.

The data that follows was organized according to grade level. The final exam results that yielded a dramatic and negative outcome for the students were isolated:
Cases in which a student carried an A (at least 89.5) for the year, and then earned a B as a result of the final exam.
Cases in which a student carried a B (at least a 79.5) for the year, and then earned a C as a result of the final exam.
Cases in which a student was passing (at least a 64.5) for the year, and then failed the course as a result of the final exam.

Key findings:
The data indicates that Math as a subject area comprised the majority of the negative student outcomes as a result of the final exam. This is based on the limited tests that were run with the data. Further analysis is needed.
Of the total 1933 final exams taken for Math courses, 417 involved a dramatic reduction in grade (21%)
This is significantly higher compared to ELA (9%), History (12%), and Science (10%).
Overall, 13% of the total final exams counted in the core subject areas demonstrated a negative student outcome using the criteria listed above.
If we are talking about the total number of failures, data reveals concerning disproportionality. Out of the 13,416 final exams taken, 2,467 were failed exams.
Of these 2,467 final exams, 925 exams were in Math. In other words, Math accounts for 37% of the failing exams. Compared with ELA, which accounted for 8% of failed exams (199).
The attribution of the final exams scores on Senior-year apathy is misguided in light of the following results with respect to 2,467 failed exams,
351 were from Grade 12 (14%)
654 were from Grade 11 (27%)
857 were from Grade 10 (35%)
605 were from Grade 9 (25%)
Seniors represented the lowest percentage of failed exams.
Within those subject areas were courses in which no students failed. In those cases, a more accurate measure would be to count only the courses in which students experienced negative outcomes versus the rest of their peers in that course.
For example, if we were to take Honors Pre-Calculus, 166 final exams were taken. Of those 166 final exams:
28 went from an A to B (17 %)
19 went from a B to a C (11 %)
1 went from passing to failing (.6%)
In total, 29% of students in Honors Pre-Calc experienced negative academic outcomes in Honors Pre-Calc as a result of the final exam.

Recommendations:
As of now, the district is willing to reduce the weight of the final exam.
However, other avenues can and should be considered. For one, some high schools, such as West Windsor, have not mandated final exams since 2015. The state of NJ does not require final exams. They may have unintended and unnecessary additional stressors on the emotional and physical wellbeing of the students. This should also be further explored with mental health experts as well as through surveys of students and staff at the high school.
Form an Ad-Hoc committee with all stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, mental health experts, admin) to determine the true value of these assessments to develop genuinely authentic and meaningful assessments including formative and summative assessments over the period of four marking periods. Invite the former Asst. Superintendent of Curriculum, Dr. Chris Tienken, to provide further recommendations on Research Based School Reform.

Yours sincerely,

Anonymous