New Jersey Ranks 43rd in Math Recovery and 24th in Reading
February 11, 2025
Legendary Hip Hop Rapper “Treach” at West Side High School
February 13, 2025Bottom Line: New Jersey Is Not #1 in Education
JerseyCAN, the only statewide advocacy organization in New Jersey committed to ensuring access to high-quality public schools for every child regardless of zip code, cultural background, and socioeconomic status, released today an easy-to-understand white paper showcasing the New Jersey results for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Earlier this month, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or “The Nation’s Report Card,” which provides biennial information about student academic achievement in Math and Reading in all 50 states. The assessment measures knowledge and skills in both subjects for fourth- and eighth-grade students and provides a breakdown of student performance based on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors. The NAEP is a congressionally mandated program overseen and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences.
“When these New Jersey results were recently released, JerseyCAN stressed that New Jersey’s performance was objectively lackluster at best. This remains true, and it is incumbent on all of us to ensure this information is shared throughout the state, is easy to understand, and engenders honest discussions,” stated JerseyCAN Executive Director Paula White. “The bottom line is New Jersey is not #1 in education in the country, and we must double down on high-quality instruction delivered under conditions most conducive to learning. We also need full transparent, implementation of all new policies and laws to address this crisis. The full swath of JerseyCAN’s programmatic efforts and our statewide engagement are dedicated to ensuring a high-quality education for every child regardless of zip code, cultural background, and socioeconomic status. We hope that our new JerseyCAN White Paper provides a clearer understanding of the desperate situation our kids face in the Garden State and that the document is proactively shared with parents, elected officials at the local level and in Trenton, and those running for office in 2025. There is much work to do regarding New Jersey’s education system. Anyone who says differently does not have the best interests in mind for our kids or our families. However, we can’t address the problem unless all parties and stakeholders clearly understand the situation our kids currently face in our public schools. JerseyCAN will continue to fight to steer significant resources directly into our classrooms and to advocate that the state teaches reading, math, and other subjects using the most robust, evidence-based instruction.”
The full NAEP New Jersey report can be found here:
3 Comments
And it took New Jersey legislators 4 long painful years to come up with a high – impact tutoring program, which presently is being implemented in only a handful of schools and just recently, Governor Murphy signed a literacy bill into law. Further, no one really knows where the over 4 billion dollars of Covid-19 funding went-obviously not to correct the learning loss. New Jersey had no sense of urgency to address this issue head on with all its available resources.
I would like to see a chart of the Charter Schools in NJ posting: how long they have been operating, when they are up for review to be able to function or not, and test scores.
Then I would like to see a chart of the Public Schools and test scores.
When you mention state scores are the Charter and Public Schools grouped together or are they separate?
One issue that is severely underreported in New Jersey is that we rank dead last among all 50 states in including students with disabilities in general education classrooms. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, New Jersey has the highest percentage of students with disabilities who are educated separately from their non-disabled peers in the United States. In 2022, 67% of special education students nationwide were placed in “inclusive” settings, meaning they were educated alongside their non-disabled peers for 80% or more of the school day. However, in New Jersey, only 45% of special education students were included in this category.
Forty years of research has consistently shown that students, both with and without disabilities, who receive education in fully inclusive settings perform better academically and socially compared to those in segregated or partially segregated environments, such as “education support units” or “resource classrooms.” Despite the lack of evidence supporting these practices, segregated education continues to be overwhelmingly recommended as a viable option for families and educators in New Jersey.