John Migueis is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the administrator of NJ21st.com, a platform dedicated to analyzing and reporting on municipal, education, and state issues affecting New Jersey’s 21st district. 

This article is the third in a series on budget and achievement for seven urban New Jersey school districts: Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Trenton, Union City, Paterson, and Camden, using a Dashboard for ease of access. The first article, “How Are NJ Districts Really Holding Up,” analyzes median household income, district costs, and test scores, noting a downward trend in performance between 2019-2023 in these seven urban districts. The second article, “Digging Deeper on School Spending in 7 Cities,” drills down on instructional spending, teacher to student ratios, and administrative costs. This last in the series will attempt to provide more specific insights into how each school performs across grades.

The information below is based on data from the NJ Department of Performance Reports.

Grades were divided into three categories: Grades 3-5 were identified as Elementary School, grades 6-8 were identified as Middle School, grades 9-12 were identified as High School. (Students in grades K-2 don’t take state standardized tests.)

Also, issues with the data and a possible concern for parents is there were large swatches of testing data missing from two districts, Camden and Trenton:

Union City was the only district that showed a slight improvement in overall average performance over time.

Newark and Elizabeth experienced the most significant declines in overall average performance.

Elementary School: Grades 3 Through 5

The 7-City average for Elementary School proficiency remains below pre-pandemic levels in Math, English Language Arts (ELA or reading), and Science. Prior to the pandemic, on average 36% of students achieved proficiency in ELA, 28% in Math, and 9% in Science.

Here is the district-by-district breakdown for the averages driving the graph above.

Middle School: Grades 6 through 8

The 7-City average for Middle School proficiency remains below pre-pandemic levels on Math and ELA. Science is slightly higher. Prior to the pandemic, on average 40% of students achieved proficiency in ELA, 25% in Math and 5% in Science.

Here is the district-by-district breakdown for the averages driving the graph above.

High School: Grades 9 through 12

The 7-City average for High School proficiency remains below pre-pandemic levels on ELA. Science is slightly higher. Prior to the pandemic, 32% of students achieved proficiency in ELA and 10% in Science, on average.

Algebra I and Algebra 2 remain below pre-pandemic levels, Geometry is higher. Prior to the pandemic, 23% of students achieved proficiency in Algebra I, 39% in Algebra II, and 18% in Geometry, on average.

Here is the district-by-district breakdown for the averages driving the graph above

Trajectory

When averaging out the three testing periods for all subjects across grade categories for all seven districts we find that overall proficiency rates remain under 30%. Algebra and Geometry proficiency rates are included in the High School Category.

Breaking it down district-by-district provides families in each city a bit more insight. The table below provides a visual of overall proficiency rate averages from 2019-2023 across grades levels.

Camden

Elizabeth

Jersey City

Newark

Paterson

Trenton

Union City

There is much other data in the DOE reports that parents and students may be interested in. If you need help with figuring out how to collect and analyze the data for your district, you can email me at team@bhcw.io.