CASE STUDY
Pascack Valley Regional Educators:
Tracking Student Growth to Strengthen Instructional Decisions
What if your best learning data isn't from a state test, but from today's lesson?
Pascack Valley Regional High School District serves 1,700 students across two high schools in Montvale, NJ. With a strong focus on authentic, performance-based learning, labs, essays, inquiry tasks, the district understands that real learning happens in the daily work. The core idea: using that daily student work to understand growth over time, not just once-a-year test scores.
Pascack Valley Regional High School District
Montvale, NJ
Grades 9-12
District-Level Case Study
Authentic Assessment
Student Growth
Instructional Decisions
At a Glance
District Profile
1,700 students · 2 high schools · grades 9–12
Instructional Focus
Performance-based learning: labs, essays, inquiry tasks
Key Challenge
Daily student work was rich, but trends surfaced too slowly
LearningPulse Use
Real-time analysis of open-ended responses, labs, and writing
The Challenge: Daily Student Work Was Rich… But Slow to Surface Trends
Teachers like Dr. Dave Frangiosa (science) and Brett Conrad (English/AP Seminar) had strong instructional routines and lots of authentic writing from students. The challenge wasn't the quality of work—it was volume and visibility.
Dave faced 100+ lab reports, making it difficult to see class-wide gaps quickly. Brett had 100+ writers to support without repeating the same feedback or letting AI "do the writing" for students. Administrators needed to know: "Are students improving on the skills we teach across sections?"
Pain Points
Time-intensive to analyze open-ended work at scale
Feedback lagged behind instruction
Almost no visibility into growth over time across classes/sections
"What if feedback and visibility finally moved at the same speed as student work?"
Choosing LearningPulse
Pascack Valley piloted LearningPulse with a committee of approximately 30 teachers across multiple subjects. Leading the initiative was Megan Graziano, District Supervisor of Science & Technology Education, who saw the potential for AI- powered analysis to transform how the district understands student learning.
"LearningPulse uses AI-powered analysis of open-ended responses to detect learning trends in real time. It gives administrators cross-grade data they can actually use to make instructional decisions while learning is still happening."
— Megan Graziano
District Supervisor of Science & Technology Education
What They Needed
Analyze authentic student work (labs, essays, explanations)
Roll results up quickly so teachers see patterns instantly
Roll results up again so administrators see patterns across classes, departments, and schools
Faster Feedback Loops Break the Cycle of Pretending to Learn
In classrooms, students may look confident but miss the concept entirely. At the district level, test results arrive months later. The problem is the same: you can't act on what you can't see in time.
Old Loop
Student work submitted
Weeks of grading
Delayed insight
Missed moment
New Loop
Student work today
LearningPulse analysis
Insight in minutes
Next-day instructional adjustment
For Teachers: What Changes in the Classroom
What once took hours or days now takes minutes, so teachers can adjust instruction while learning is still happening.
Dave Frangiosa
Science Teacher
Key Impact:
Sees in minutes what percentage of students are proficient in different lab components
Growth-over-time reports show where each student started and their progress across multiple labs
"If I have all my students submit a lab today, I can see… 80% are proficient in their conclusion, but only 20% in experimental design."
"LearningPulse pulls examples from previous labs to show where the student started and how they've progressed. It's a great report to share with students and parents."
Brett Conrad
English / AP Seminar Teacher
Key Impact:
Shorter feedback window makes students more receptive and less anxious
Surfaces patterns like struggles with organizing evidence or developing claims
"LearningPulse eases their learning burden… It feels less punitive and more like 'Oh, this is how I get better.'"
"It's like getting an instant snapshot of where my next mini-lesson needs to go."
For Administrators:
Real-Time Visibility Across the District
The same patterns that guide a teacher's next lesson support administrators with MTSS reviews, IEP updates, and curriculum planning. Administrators can see how skills develop across classrooms and grade levels using actual student work, not just test scores.
From Reaction to Proaction
Old Approach
Yearly tests
Retroactive data
Limited control
New Approach
Daily evidence of learning
Real-time adjustments
Strategic planning
Students Don't Show Growth on Test Day. They Show Growth Every Day.
There's a fundamental tension between high-stakes tests, which capture proficiency snapshots, and daily work, where learning actually happens. We spend 180 days teaching, then wait for a yearly test that arrives too late to shape outcomes.
The opportunity is right in front of us: using daily work as the most trusted evidence of learning. Not because tests don't matter, but because by the time results arrive, the moment to intervene has passed.
"If feedback arrives while the learning is still happening, you're more effective."
— Dave Frangiosa
Districts already have the people to change outcomes; they need the visibility to act before learning moves on.
Taking Back What We Can Control
Pascack Valley is taking back what it can control by turning daily learning evidence into real-time guidance for teachers and leaders. LearningPulse makes learning visible while there's still time to adjust, support, and stretch. It helps teachers feel energized, students feel progress, and administrators move intentionally.
That's how student achievement changes: from the inside out.
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