Board Member: Where’s the Data Showing that Montgomery Students Are Excelling?

By Mia Shou | Posted July 9, 2025

One question expressed by Montgomery School Board Member Ting Wang lingered at the end of the meeting on June 17: “Where’s the data showing that Montgomery is excelling?”

Some board members exhibit a lack of trust in school professionals, despite evidence that Montgomery schools are ranked among the best in many metrics.

School Board Member Ting Wang (left) has given a lengthy speech at every meeting since February. Board member Michelle Dowling is on right.

Photo by Barbara A. Preston

Wang's 10-minute speech was titled, "Accountability through Data." She then took comments from other board members for another 20 minutes, at times demanding that school professionals turn over "aggregated student growth data" so that board members can analyze it.

Since February, Wang has been working towards what she terms as a “data-driven” approach to district-wide success. Key tenets of her platform include ensuring the school professionals release student data to the public, and provide equity of opportunities for student growth. 

“We cannot talk meaningfully about student growth, curriculum quality, or educational equity if we don’t first agree that decisions must be informed by data — not driven by assumptions, convenience, or tradition,” she said in her closing statement. 

Montgomery Director of School Counseling & Student Wellness Cory Delgado gave a presentation that included student achievement at the May school board meeting.

Photo by Barbara A. Preston

School administrators have shared the following:  MHS students have the fourth highest SAT scores in the state; the MHS Science Olympiad Team is ranked No. 10 in the nation and No. 1 in New Jersey; and MHS students earned the highest scores globally in 2024 on Advanced Placement tests in computer science, calculus AB, calculus BC, statistics, biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics, macro economics, and more according to a presentation given by Director of School Counseling Cory Delgado in May.

>> Click here to view the presentation “Portrait of an MHS Graduate.” 

“We do far and away better than our peers in the state and around the world,” Delgado said. The high school administered more than 1500 AP tests in 2024, and 1600 AP tests during a two week period in 2025 in 21 subject areas.

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Wang Wants Benchmark Data

In an interview with The Montgomery News, Wang detailed how data from benchmark tests is valuable in that it demonstrates student progress and identifies those who need help, which allows for the curriculum and teaching strategies to be adjusted respectively.

However, according to Wang, the district has said that such data was for internal use only.

“Everything is paid for by the public,” she said. “So when the public asks for that information, and we know it’s being used, why do you not want to share that with the public? 

Wang mentioned in the meeting that she had similar difficulty with obtaining retainment data from the Montgomery School Board’s Assessment, Curriculum & Instruction (ACI) committee. 

Wang says she has support from the community who align themselves with her push for student growth opportunities. Among her supporters is Balaji Yegneswaran, MD, a parent who ran for school board in 2020. (<< Click to view The Montgomery News article on Yegneswaran's 2020 platform.)

“Montgomery has always been a district that values academic excellence,” Yegneswaran said as he addressed the board. “But right now, we are making a choice to limit students instead of lifting them.”

Montgomery High School's 2024 AP scores, as reported by the College Board. More than 1500 AP tests were administered to MHS students in 2024.

Yegneswaran said he was referring to his impression that the district’s double-accelerated math program had been discontinued, and that students after the Class of 2030 could not enroll. The program, he said, allowed students who passed a placement test to begin pre-algebra in fifth grade, which would see them complete AP Calculus C in their junior year rather than in their senior year.

Yegneswaran said he was representing parents such as those who were present at board meetings in March and April, as well as the 50 who signed a March 2025 petition to reinstate the curriculum. For these parents, the lack of the double-accelerated program corresponds to a lack of equal access for students, he said.

Yegneswaran, who is a critical care physician at Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, said, “The only way to get ahead now is outside the school system by paying for private tutors, summer courses and transportation. That’s not equity. That’s privilege."

But, MHS Students Can Take Calculus BC as Juniors

However, Fiona Borland, Montgomery’s Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Staff Development responded to these concerns in her own address.

“I will reiterate that a freshman can start high school in Algebra 2 and take Calculus BC as a junior without any summer classes,” she said.

Such a response echoed what Board Member Michelle Dowling said in the board’s May meeting regarding students who wanted to take AP Calculus BC in eleventh grade.

Borland also responded to calls for data from the district.

“It seems that the data and the recommendations of experienced curriculum experts do not support the recent requests of a small handful of individuals,” she said. “Public statements are being made to imply that thoughtful due diligence did not occur.”

Overall, her address expressed a sense of frustration surrounding communication between the school district and parents. 

“Since 2013, I have had a history of experiencing respectful, two-way dialogue with all members of our community, but that is not what I am experiencing at this time,” she said.

Yegneswaran was equally frustrated with what he views as a lack of transparency from the district.

“It took me four months to get information that the [double-accelerated program] does not exist. They don’t even show it on the website. They don’t even announce that it’s been terminated,” he said in an interview with The Montgomery News.

In protest, students, including Yegneswaran’s fourth grader daughter, attended the March 18 board meeting to voice their opinions. Still, Yegneswaran does not believe the message is getting through.

School professionals say they have heard message, and answered.