Camden schools make modest gains in state test scores, and other takeaways from a special advisory board meeting

Some Camden public school students performed better on the latest state standardized tests, with modest gains in math and language arts, but more improvements are needed, said Superintendent Katrina T. McCombs.

McCombs released 2024 results from the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, or NJSLA, during a rare Monday morning special school board meeting via Zoom. The state-run district was required to present the results at a public meeting by Nov. 12.

In a presentation, McCombs reviewed the results for students in grades three through 11 in language arts and math. The tests were administered last spring, along with a science test for fifth, eighth, and 11th graders. Statewide results have not been released to the public.

There was good news and bad news in the number of students achieving proficiency or better in all three subjects. School-level data, though, showed some schools made significant gains, including at Octavius Catto School, where language arts went from 15.6% of students meeting expectations in 2023 to 34.5% in 2024. McCombs applauded those schools and said they would be used as models.

“We know that we still have work to do,” McCombs said.

In language arts, third graders improved from 5.9% meeting expectations in 2023 to 10.8% in 2024, McCombs said. The state average was 37.2%. Gains were also made by fourth, fifth, and sixth graders.

Seventh graders didn’t fare as well, dropping from 12.8% meeting expectations in 2023 to 7.8% in 2024, compared with 31.5% statewide. Language arts scores also declined slightly for eighth and ninth graders.

The results showed that Camden students continue to struggle in math, with a few grade levels making slight gains. All grade levels were significantly below the state average.

Among fourth graders, 9.6% met the math expectation in 2024, an increase from 6.1% the year before. The state average is 37.5%.

At the high schools, only 1% of students met the expectation for Algebra II in 2024, compared with the state average of 47%. (Scores for 2023 were not released.)

McCombs announced New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment results in September that showed only 34% of 11th graders passed the language arts portion, compared with 82% statewide, she said. For math, 8.3% of Camden students met the standard, compared with 55% statewide, she said.

Here are some other takeaways from the meeting.

McCombs also announced the district’s latest performance on the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum, the state’s monitoring system for how public schools operate. The results are significant because, as a takeover district, Camden must score at least an 80 in five areas.

Camden exceeded the benchmark in governance, fiscal management, and personnel, but not for operations, or instruction and programs, a key area that includes student achievement on standardized tests. The district scored 61 in instruction and programs, compared with 9 in the 2011-12 school year prior to state intervention, McCombs said.

Former Gov. Chris Christie ordered the state takeover in 2012, saying it would be “immoral” not to place the worst-performing public school system in New Jersey under state control. Only half its students were graduating high school, and the dropout rate was 20 percentage points higher than the state average.

No timeline has been given for the takeover to end. It took decades for the three other takeover districts in North Jersey — Paterson, Newark, and Jersey City — to regain local control.

McCombs announced the special meeting in a notice last week. It was the first time that the beleaguered advisory board has held a morning meeting via Zoom. It typically meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

With time running out, the superintendent said the district faced a Nov. 12 state mandate to have a public meeting to release the scores. The advisory board canceled its Oct. 28 meeting due to a lack of a quorum.

Camden schools are closed three days this week because of the election and the annual two-day state New Jersey Education Association convention in Atlantic City for teachers and support staff.

Former school board member José E. Delgado expressed concern about the meeting’s timing. He also said it was difficult to digest the “avalanche of information,” including slides of charts and statistics.

“I find it very interesting that you would have a meeting at 9:30,” Delgado said. “My eyes glazed over after about an hour.”

» READ MORE: I served on Camden’s school board for 27 years. The politics involved made a state takeover inevitable

About 75 people were on the Zoom call, most of them district staff and board members. Delgado and former board member Sean Brown were the only members of the public who signed up to comment. Brown called the test scores “super concerning and alarming.” He also urged the board to revise its sexual harassment policy.

According to Michael Yaple, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, state regulations stipulate that board meetings may start no later than 8 p.m., unless there is no quorum, and then they may be recessed until 9 p.m. There is no reference in the statutes to morning meetings, he said.

The school advisory board will meet Nov. 14 to fill two vacant seats on the nine-person board, including the seat held by its former president, Wasim Muhammad. Muhammad resigned under pressure in September after fallout from a civil sex abuse lawsuit, involving a former student, that cost the district millions of dollars.

Board member Nyemah Gillespie also stepped down in September, saying in her resignation letter her decision came from “a place of deep disappointment,” including the “actions of the former board president.” Her term was scheduled to expire in January 2026.

The board has been in turmoil since a lawsuit filed against Muhammad by a former student alleging he sexually assaulted her when he was her teacher in 1994 came to light. The district and Muhammad reached a $2 million agreement in June to settle the case.

» READ MORE: The embattled Camden school advisory board president has resigned after months of protests

In the 2021 civil lawsuit, the student, Salema Hicks Robinson, accused Muhammad of sexually abusing her when he was her social studies teacher at Cooper B. Hatch Middle School. She said the abuse began when she was 14.

Muhammad, 56, has denied any wrongdoing and said he resigned because his tenure had become a distraction. Because the Camden school system is under a state takeover, the board serves in an advisory capacity and has no real authority.