The N.J. School Report Card data came out today and it’s a bit sobering. We’re sure there’ll be some punchy spin from Lucille Davy and D.O.E. soon enough, but right now we only have a few comments from newspapers and the stark reality of the numbers.

From the Star-Ledger:

New Jersey high school students did marginally worse last year on state tests designed to gauge proficiency, but middle school students facing a more rigorous test saw their passing rates fall dramatically, according to results released today

NorthJersey gives us a quick overview: high school scores were steady, elementary kids did a little better, and 5th –8th graders posted lower scores. The Asbury Park Press gives a few Southern Jersey notes and says to check back tomorrow.

Here’s our first take.

Let’s look at some of the variables. First, the No Child Left Behind legislation, in its quest to make every kid in the U.S. achieve 100% proficiency in every subject by 2014, has periodic upticks in what is defined as “Adequate Yearly Progress.” This is one of those years. Therefore, for example, a high school in 2007 was deemed to make AYP if 79% of its 11th graders passed the state test in Language Arts, which in New Jersey is the HSPA. In 2008, AYP jumps to 85%. For math, 64% of 11th graders needed to pass the test. This year it’s 74%. (Here’s a link that takes you through the calculations.) Bottom line: more schools across the nation will fail to make AYP, more schools will be rated as Schools In Need of Improvement, more schools will be subject to sanctions.

Here’s another wrinkle. This past July the DOE raised the scores for “proficiency” in grades 5-8. Why? Embarrassment. Until that change, New Jersey considered a passing grade for those students to be anything higher than a score of 33%. That’s right – correctly answering 1/3 of the test questions garnered a passing grade. Now proficiency is defined as 50%. Bottom line: fifth through eighth graders get a double whammy because not only has the Federal government raised the bar for proficiency, but so has the State.

Back in October NJLB profiled two disparate schools within Burlington County: Moorestown High and Willingboro High. The contrast was alarming, as the kids from the much more impoverished school demonstrated dramatically lower achievement than a neighboring privileged population. There will more attention paid to 5th – 8th graders this year, so we revisited the two districts, 9 miles apart, to see how their upper elementary schools fared this year.

Let’s look at just a couple of data points from the new 2008 numbers. (All this info is available today on the DOE website.) In Moorestown Upper Elementary School, the number of 5th graders who failed the NJASK5 in Language Arts was 24%, and in math the number of kids who failed was 12.8%. In Grade 6, the number of kids who failed the NJASK6 in Language Arts was 27% and the number of kids who failed math was 12.2%.

Over at Willingboro Memorial Upper Elementary School, the number of 5th graders who failed the NJASK5 in Language Arts was 63.3% and in math the number of kids who failed was 36.7%. In Grade 6, the number of kids who failed NJASK6 in Language Arts was 67.1% and the number of kids who failed math was 47.2%.

In every case, the number of kids who failed to achieve proficiency in Willingboro was almost three times as high as the kids in Moorestown.

The scandal is not the number of kids who fail. The scandal is that New Jersey has two towns, 14 minutes apart, with dramatically different levels of achievement. We’re the ones who are not making adequate yearly progress, and we’re the ones who are failing the kids.