from NJ’s No Child Left Behind waiver application:

While in the aggregate New Jersey’s students perform at nation-leading levels, the state has a number of troubling deficiencies. On the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam, New Jersey ranked 50 out of 51 states (including DC) in the size of the achievement gap between low and high-income students in 8th grade reading. Tens of thousands of children attend schools where only a minority of students meets basic levels of proficiency in reading and math. Across the state, over 40 percent of third graders are not reading on grade level. And perhaps most alarmingly, a distressingly high percentage of those who do graduate from high school are unprepared for success: nearly 90 percent of students entering some of New Jersey’s community colleges require remediation…

While the NJDOE celebrates its successes, the Department also must honestly acknowledge the massive improvements that must be achieved to meet its ambitious goals. The NJDOE intends to close the achievement gap so student performance is no longer a function of demographics while simultaneously pushing New Jersey’s highest performing students to compete with and exceed the accomplishments of their excelling peers in other states and across the globe.