On Wednesday NJ Education Report published an article about the most recent New Jersey State Board of Education meeting and the lack of discussion about recently-released student achievement data from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments, considered the “gold standard” for gauging student proficiency levels in math and reading.

At the time of publication, the NJ Department of Education had not responded to a request for comment but followed up today with this, which notes the correlation between state standardized test results and the “gold standard” NAEP scores as well as the interventions currently underway:

“While New Jersey is not seeing the same decline in performance as some other states, we recognize the urgency in addressing learning gaps and we continue to focus on raising academic performance across the board. This year’s NAEP results are in line with our projections based on statewide assessment scores, and there are a number of significant efforts currently underway to address performance gaps statewide. A small sample of which includes: the Department’s $52M High Impact Tutoring Grant, which is designed to address student learning in both literacy and math; $50 million Comprehensive State Literacy Development (CSLD) grant award; and two bills (S2644 and A2288) Governor Murphy recently signed into law advancing foundational literacy instruction. We recognize the learning recovery is a long-term effort that requires consistency to achieve success. We remain steadfast in our mission to ensure all of New Jersey’s students have access to a high-quality education, and we expect to see our work pay off in the coming years.”

NJ Ed Report thanks the DOE for its responsiveness.