As Wake Up Call NJ and the National Parents Union continue to shine light on the lack of clear information about student proficiency levels in some of New Jersey’s most highly-praised suburban school districts, the first two districts highlighted, West Windsor-Plainsboro (WW-P) and Montclair, are both making headlines.

Yesterday the school ranking platform Niche announced that WW-P is now the #2 best school district in the state, bested only by Northern Regional High. A day earlier Montclair Local reported that due to a budget hole of $19.6 million from unpaid bills and unbudgeted expenses, Montclair residents will vote on a referendum to raise school taxes by $1,738  per household per year.

Here is what is not in the news:

• According to the state database, in illustrious WW-P there is a 37 point achievement gap in reading proficiency between white or Asian students and Black students; last year 76% of students districtwide met or exceeded expectations in reading but only 39% of Black students did. 
• In Montclair, districtwide 69% of students met proficiency levels in reading but only 45% of Black students met that benchmark, a 24 point gap. In math, 55% of the student body met expectations but only 24% of Black students did, a 31 point gap. There is little improvement as students proceed through school: the gap increases between third and seventh grades.

You don’t hear much about this in West Windsor-Plainsboro but in Montclair it garners much self-flagellation if little amelioration. Montclair Local says “since the late 1970s [the district] has adopted equity rules and reforms that made it the envy of other towns that champion diversity” with the establishment of groups like  Undoing Racism and Restorative Justice Montclair.   Yet a report found “90 percent of white third graders were proficient in reading, compared to 60 percent of black students”  and “advanced Placement classes were 73 percent white.”

At a recent board meeting officials reported on a 50 point achievement gap between Black and white Montclair High School graduates who are deemed “graduation ready” on the state standardized tests in math. In response, a district representative promised math teachers would be trained in “culturally responsive practices.”

In other words, it’s not just that inflated report card grades give parents false assurances that their kids are progressing academically. It is also that virtue-gesturing becomes a substitute for adequately serving students. 

What can be done?

Wake Up New Jersey has a plan. For both WW-P and Montclair:

• Set measurable goals for math and reading.
• Share student performance with parents in real time.
• Tell parents what grades mean: what is included in the course grade and a display of each student’s state test results for math, reading, and science.

(Montclair should also “restore financial transparency.”)

Will this solve the achievement gap in NJ in a state where we have the 9th largest growth in student outcome disparities (see chart below) while in Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, low-income kids outperform those in every other state? Any plan has to start with being clear with parents about their children’s progress, regardless of their race or economic class.