First N.J. standardized test scores since the pandemic show students still struggling

In their first standardized state tests since the pandemic, New Jersey’s public school students struggled in language arts and math, with eighth graders showing the biggest losses in both subjects, according to state data released Wednesday.

The results, released by the state Department of Education at the monthly meeting of the Board of Education, were not unexpected and mirror trends nationally by students hurt by learning disruption during the pandemic.

Joshua Glazer, an associate professor of education policy at George Washington University, called the results “sobering” and said, put simply, the latest results show that “schools matter.” During the pandemic, schools were closed and millions of students attended classes virtually. Remote learning was delayed in some districts until students received Chromebooks.

“It seems that online learning was a pretty poor substitute,” Glazer said. “If there is any doubt that schools play an important role, we can put that argument to rest.”

While results were available Wednesday for third through ninth graders statewide who took the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, or NJSLA, in math, language arts, and science, officials said district results would be released later. That information was provided months ago to district officials.

The percentage of students achieving proficiency or above in the three subjects declined in nearly all grade levels in 2022 compared with 2019, the last year before the pandemic: from 57.6% to 48.9% in English language arts, 44% to 35.4% in math, and 25.4% to 23.2% in science. Unlike most states, New Jersey didn’t administer the test for two years, although Pennsylvania gave its tests in 2021 to a greatly reduced student population.

In language arts, eighth graders had the biggest decline, with 51.4% meeting and exceeding expectations, down 11.5 percentage points from 2019, when 62.9% achieved the benchmark. Eighth graders also saw the biggest drop in math, falling 13.9 percentage points, from 29.3% in 2019 to 15.4% in 2022.

The results showed some gains in how students performed in geometry (a 12.6 percentage-point increase from 2019 to 2022) and Algebra II (a 1.6 percentage-point increase), but state officials attribute the improvements to changes in graduation requirements that resulted in fewer students taking those exams.

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Glazer said he was especially troubled by the 2022 third-grade language arts results, which showed that 20.1% of students were not yet meeting expectations and 15.5% were partially meeting expectations. Those gaps will be the hardest to close in coming years because reading is often not taught after third grade, he said.

“We can’t let those early elementary gaps fester,” Glazer said. “They will plague a whole generation of kids as they go through school.”

In the science exam, given to fifth, eighth, and 11th graders, results were mixed, with fifth- and eighth-grade results dropping and 11th graders improving: Among fifth graders, 29.3% were at least proficient in 2019, compared with 25.6% in 2022; 15.6% of eighth graders were proficient or above in 2022, down from 19.8%; while there was a 1.6 percentage-point increase for 11th graders, from 27.3% to 28.9%.

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State Board of Education member Joseph Ricca Jr., a school superintendent in Morris County, said he was concerned about the state administering the standardized tests after the pandemic. He urged the board to keep in mind that students and educators are slowly emerging from a crisis.

“Sometimes when we look at numbers, we forget that human beings are being counted,” Ricca said. “None of these assessments address the reality [that] what we are seeing here is the outcome of the human struggle.”

Camden School Superintendent Katrina McCombs said it may take years for educators to realize the impact of the pandemic. Her district was among the last in the region to fully reopen after schools were shut down by the coronavirus.

“We were making steady gains and then the pandemic hit and we plummeted,” she said.

McCombs said there were some bright spots in Camden’s scores. Students in six city schools surpassed 2019 results, in some cases showing double-digit gains. Two of its five high schools, Eastside and the Big Picture Academy, had increases in math, although both fell short of meeting expectations.

“We know that we have a long way to go. We have not arrived yet,” McCombs said.

Paula White, executive director of JerseyCAN, an education advocacy group, criticized the state for not releasing the complete test results. The report “lacked meaningful data, substance, urgency, and vision.

“To this day, we still need to find out which districts or schools are the beacons of light that we can learn from at this crucial time,” White said.

During the nearly 3½-hour state board meeting, board member Andrew J. Mulvihill peppered acting State Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan with questions about how the state plans to help schools cope with the learning losses.

“Do you think it was a good idea that we closed schools? Is it something we should have done?” he asked.

The commissioner declined to comment on public health policy and said she stands by decisions made by Gov. Phil Murphy. The state last week launched an initiative known as New Jersey Partnership for Student Success to recruit as many as 5,000 people to serve as mentors, tutors, and coaches to address learning loss, she said.

The state Department of Education sent districts their district and school-by-school results in the summer to help plan for the school year. Districts are required to provide their scores to parents. Newark, the largest school system in the state, recently released scores to parents and the public for its 64 schools.

The state also released results Wednesday for its embattled high school graduation exam, which has been fiercely debated. According to the results, 39.4% of juniors who took the language arts exam last spring were ready to graduate, and 49.5% passed the math portion.

Like other state tests, the exam showed a growing achievement gap among students of color, English language learners, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities. Asian students were the top performers with 69.7% passing in language arts and 84.7% in math.

Because of the controversy surrounding the exam, lawmakers earlier this year adopted a bill signed by Murphy that waived the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment as a requirement for this year’s senior class. Instead, the exam will only be used as a field test to develop a new proficiency exam.

New Jersey is among 11 states that mandate an exit exam to graduate from high school, even if students meet course requirements. Lawmakers and educators are debating whether the exam should be eliminated for future classes. Currently, students who fail the exam can still graduate through an alternative assessment or a portfolio appeals process.