The Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) is celebrating 13 perfect scores on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments earlier this month.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Our students’ performance on statewide assessments underscores the power of HoLa’s bilingual education model to not just meet but exceed state standards,” HoLa Hoboken Executive Director Jennifer Sargent said in a statement.
“These results are notable for the fact that our students spend their first three years of Elementary school with 90% of academic instruction in Spanish, yet consistently outperform their peers statewide in assessments administered in English starting in 3rd grade. I congratulate our students and staff on this accomplishment.”
11 scored perfectly in English Language Arts (ELA), while two scored perfectly in Math, an achievement that is particularly noteworthy given that the school’s students in grades K-2 are immersed in Spanish 90% of instructional time, while those in grades 3-8 receive instruction in Spanish for at least 50% of their school day.
HoLa students spend much less time in English speaking classes than their peers, as research consistently demonstrates that students in dual language classrooms thrive academically, outperforming their monolingual peers on standardized achievement tests, while developing high levels of proficiency in both English and Spanish.
The perfect score achieving students are Natalia Artigas, Ana Bravman, Vincent Deaton, Eva Fernandez, Eva Gacek-Huang, Vihaan Goel, Edwin He, James Heidenry, Rebecca Kahn, Eileen Makris, Sahar Niv, Evani Pareek, and Colin Wu.
Overall, 91 percent of HoLa students in grades 3-8 scored Proficient or Advanced Proficient in ELA, achieving a score of 4 or 5 on the NJSLA, while 77 percent demonstrated similar proficiency in Mathematics.
HoLa’s proficiency rates are on average an incredible 40 percentage points higher than the New Jersey state average in ELA, and 38 percentage points higher than the New Jersey state average in Math.
The NJSLA assessments evaluate students’ understanding and application of critical skills in ELA and Math.
In ELA, the NJSLA focuses on close reading, synthesizing ideas, and effective writing. The mathematics assessments emphasize problem solving, abstract reasoning, and modeling real-world scenarios.
HoLa’s commitment to dual language education led to the Spanish consulate designating the school as the first International Spanish Academy in New Jersey last month.
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