On Friday Afternoon, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) released results from the 2021-2022 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA) test.  The following is a statement from JerseyCAN Executive Director Paula White:

This is a sobering day for the state of education in New Jersey and shows us all that it is easy to boast New Jersey has the best education system in the country, but much harder to make that statement a truism for all children in our state.

One might be able to slow down the sharing of information, even dump information the Friday before the Holiday Season – but facts still matter.  Information sharing and transparency remain potent tools to help inform our learning recovery.

Today, we should all be grateful to the US Department of Education, New Jersey’s families, school leaders and advocates, and elected leaders like Senate Majority Leader Ruiz and Senate Education Committee Chair Gopal who all called out the need for the NJDOE to release this important data.

And while this conversation should have started months ago – tomorrow, the real work begins.

JerseyCAN looks forward to finally being able to comprehensively review the data that has been shared. We will identify meaningful implications, include them in our continued fight to make education policy the state’s highest priority, and do all we can to help create a true all-hands-on-deck plan to address New Jersey’s learning crisis.