Average student achievement in New Jersey remains over two thirds of a grade level below 2019 levels in math and almost half of a grade level below in reading.

91% of students are in districts whose average math achievement in 2024 remained below their own 2019 levels. 

In its third year of reporting on the pace of academic recovery measures in districts nationwide, the Education Recovery Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University) is issuing its annual report on district-level student growth in math and reading.

The latest report also provides the first high resolution picture of where New Jersey students’ academic recovery stood in Spring 2024, just before federal relief dollars expired in September. While the National Assessment of Educational Progress described changes in average achievement by state, we combine those scores with district scores on state assessments to describe the change in local communities throughout New Jersey. Here’s what we found:

• New Jersey ranked 43rd among states in terms of recovery in math and 24th in reading between 2019 and 2024.
• Average student achievement in New Jersey remains over two thirds of a grade level below 2019 levels in math (.68 grade equivalents) and almost half of a grade level below in reading (.45 grade equivalents). In other words, the loss in math achievement in New Jersey is equivalent to 68 percent of the progress students typically make annually between grades 4 through grade 8.
• 91 percent of students are in districts whose average math achievement in 2024 remained below their own 2019 levels. Math is more of a concern in New Jersey than reading, though 81 percent of students are in districts where average 2024 reading achievement remained below 2019 levels. The average student in some districts, such as West Windsor-Plainsboro Region, Edison Township, Hamilton Township, Newark, Paterson, New Brunswick, and Trenton remains more than a full grade equivalent below their 2019 mean achievement in math.
• Still, there are bright spots: mean achievement for students in districts including Union City has fully recovered to 2019 levels in both reading and math.
• A rise in chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10 percent of a school year) from 11 percent of students in 2019 before the pandemic to 16 percent in 2023 is slowing the recovery in many districts in New Jersey.
• New Jersey received $4.3 billion in federal pandemic relief for K-12 schools—or roughly $3,100 per student (which is less than the national average of $3700 per student.) Nationally, our analysis suggests that the dollars did contribute to the academic recovery, especially when targeted at academic catch-up efforts such as summer learning and tutoring.

The federal pandemic relief dollars may be gone, but the pandemic’s impact lingers in many New Jersey schools. Even without federal relief dollars, states could be targeting continuing federal Title I dollars and state dollars to implement interventions which have been shown effective, such as tutoring and summer learning.  State leaders, mayors, employers and other community leaders should join schools to redouble efforts on the shared challenge of reducing student absenteeism.

One of the project leaders, Professor Tom Kane from Harvard, said: “Unless state and local leaders step up now, the achievement losses will be the longest lasting– and most inequitable– legacy of the pandemic.”

For the national press release and findings click here.