Despite an influx of new funding to New Jersey’s poorest urban school districts following the state Supreme Court’s Abbott rulings, student achievement levels remain mostly flat at the lower end of the spectrum.

The percentage of black eighth-graders who scored above “basic” in reading actually declined, from 62 percent in 2005 to 60 percent in 2009 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Overall, there was virtually no difference in the average scores for eighth-graders over this period, with more than 80 percent of black eighth-graders scoring below “proficient” in reading.

This is a very different picture from the one described by reform opponents, like the current leaders of the New Jersey Education Association, whose persistent claims of progress in inner-city schools are as harmful as they are inaccurate.

Don Soifer in the Asbury Park Press