50CAN, the non-profit network of state-based, local leaders who advocate for improved student outcomes and opportunities, recently released its second state-by-state survey of what it calls “the current education landscape and what is important to parents.” You can dig into the national data yourself but here we’ll focus on New Jersey which, like all states, has its own comprehensive section authored, in this case, by JerseyCAN, a 50CAN affiliate.

Any overview of the state of New Jersey K-12 education must begin here: students’ proficiency levels “have been in stagnation or decline.” There are many reasons for this (as readers of NJER know): the toothless federal education accountability law called ESSA which replaced the unpopular if effective NCLB; rampant grade inflation, which fools parents into thinking their kids are fine; unnecessarily long covid school closures, and lower expectations for students. JerseyCAN correctly points to the State Board of Education’s decision to lower the definition of “proficiency” on standardized tests, particularly the graduation-qualifying test called the NJGPA:

An analysis then showed that applying the lower cut scores to that year’s student data more than doubled the state’s English Language Arts proficiency rate on the NJGPA – moving proficiency from 39% to 81%, while Mathematics proficiency rate saw a 7% uptick, from 50% to 57%.

(The giveaway: the NJ DOE changed the definition of a NJ high school diploma from “college and career ready” to the nonsensical “high school graduation ready.”)

The results of decreased accountability, deceptively high report card grades, and lower standards for proficiency are superficially heartening: politicians and special interest groups get to brag about our state school system. But careful observers are left with a deep cognitive dissonance: After all, how does one square the trumpeted 81% proficiency rate in reading with the more accurate (and more challenging) “gold standard” national test called NAEP which says only 35% of students score that highly? Or the 57% proficiency rate in math pronounced by the DOE juxtaposed with NAEP’s 22%?

From the report: “Significant discrepancies between proficiency on New Jersey state tests and NAEP represent an honesty gap, and there is significant work to be done to provide support to students who, without help, will lack the skills to thrive after high school.”

What is involved in that “significant work”?

1. Implement current literacy laws with fidelity and pass new, complementary literacy legislation.
2. Improve and modernize New Jersey’s mathematics landscape to include universal screeners and K-12 data science standards. 
3. Provide universal access to high-impact tutoring, annexed to high-quality Tier I instruction.
4. Use college-level standardized assessments to gauge academic competency, award college credit, and drive remediation. 
5. Strengthen the non-college pipeline by connecting high school students to industry-valued credentials in New Jersey.

JerseyCAN goes into detail about how to accomplish these goals. Here are a few takeaways:

It’s great that the NJ State Legislature passed two literacy bills, Senate Bills S2644 and S2647, which include “twice-yearly literacy screeners, obligatory evidence-based interventions for struggling students, and parent notification of student results.” But that’s not enough.

The New Jersey Department of Education should name specific high-quality literacy screeners and curricula that have been vetted by the Department. And we need the Legislature to pass laws to promote and sustain high-quality instruction with a bill that secures the funding to hire and centrally train literacy coaches.

Then there is math, which deserves “a heightened level of attention from policymakers and power brokers in New Jersey’s Legislative and regulatory bodies.” Just like literacy, we need numeracy screeners, with results going right to parents; for the DOE to name and vet high-quality instructional materials that districts should choose from; and “a formal initiative to provide teacher professional development that supports mathematical teaching of discrete math concepts and increases the confidence teachers have in their ability to teach mathematics.”

NJ touts its great reputation in K-12 education. The results, once we disconnect them from grade inflation and lower standards, show that reputation is unearned. There is a slew of opportunities we’re missing out on, all outlined by JerseyCAN that will require a consensus among those in power to be prescriptive with school districts and teacher preparation programs, as well as honest with parents.

A final word from JerseyCAN:

New Jersey must finally balance its accolades in education with a reckoning of the patterns in state and national student data that reveal academic stagnation, deep disparities across demographic groups and a failure to embrace and implement curricular and pedagogical frames that are fast-tracking improvement in other states across the country. The state must acknowledge, and act upon, the fact that our work in literacy is not yet done; that tweaks in our mathematics standards coupled with screener tools and substantive professional learning for educators must occur; that high-impact tutoring is an indispensable part of any plan to support students’ success and that our pathways to postsecondary success must democratize college in a financially feasible way while ensuring that the full swath of earning opportunities, inclusive of non-college options are optimized.