Yesterday Bradley Elementary School, which serves grades pre-K-3 in Asbury Park, celebrated its students for high achievement after the first marking period. Yet how are Bradley students really doing, according to the New Jersey Department of Education’s release of last spring’s standardized test scores? (The DOE redacts proficiency levels if they fall lower than 10% but actual numbers are available in the Excel spreadsheets.)

In English Language Arts (reading) and math, 3.8% of third-grade students at Bradley either scored “meeting expectations” or “exceeding expectations.” There are (according to the DOE database) 58 third-graders at Bradley. This means two students in the whole third grade are reading and doing math at grade level.

It’s wonderful to give young children positive reinforcement. Yet what are the plans to address the stark failure of the district to effectively teach students?

It’s not for lack of resources: the DOE says the total annual cost per pupil at Bradley Elementary is $40,029. For comparison, the local public charter, College Achieve Greater Asbury Park, which enrolls more economically-disadvantaged students than the district, 28% of third-graders are proficient in reading and 27.4% are proficient in math.

That charter must have more money, right? No, the total annual cost per pupil at College Achieve Asbury is $20,622.

Where is the oversight? Does the district inform parents (beyond wildly-inflated report card grades) about their children’s lack of learning? What is the plan to address the plight of students who, celebrations aside, will continue within the system and receive high school diplomas handed out like candy canes?

Asbury Park is an easy target for these questions because it functions as a siren among whispers, a kind of canary in a coalmine that reveals truths about the state agency that shouts about “equity” while brushing aside concerns about low student achievement for Black and Hispanic students.. For instance, at the State Board of Education meeting this week where the DOE released statewide test scores, we saw what one board member called “tragic gaps” between white/Asian students and Black and Hispanic students. In reading (the state didn’t break it down by grade) 61% of white students reached proficiency but only 37% of Hispanic students and 33% of Black students reached that benchmark. In math statewide, 49% of white students (74% of Asian students!) reached proficiency; 21% of Hispanic students and 17% of Black students did.

That’s still far higher than student outcomes at Asbury Park, where almost all students are Black or Hispanic.

A teacher told me the students at Bradley Elementary are so far behind because of a “lack of rigor and inquiry” in classrooms. The teacher adds, “[Superintendent Rashawn] Adams is certainly missing the point. What a hot mess!”

We know this. The Department of Education knows this. Yet nothing changes for families in Asbury Park.