2023 test scores for NJ students are in. Here's how they compare to pre-pandemic levels
Student performance on New Jersey's statewide tests in math, English and science improved in 2023 from last year but the numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels, state officials said Wednesday during a presentation of results from standardized testing conducted in the spring.
Two key problems facing New Jersey schools stood out in the K-12 standardized test results for 2023: Third graders in particular are still struggling to catch up to pre-pandemic performance levels, and only 55% of the state’s 11th graders have graduation-ready math skills.
States have been paying a lot more attention to standardized test results after the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptions, when K-12 testing saw a two-year pause in 2020 and 2021. Last year’s test results showed historic drops in performance nationwide, as predicted by experts and educators.
This year’s tests provide some insight into where students stand as schools continue to address learning loss caused by the pandemic.
New Jersey’s third through ninth graders showed "improvement in subjects when all grades are aggregated" on the spring 2023 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, said Jorden Schiff, assistant commissioner of the state Education Department's Division of Teaching and Learning Services.
But the results were still much lower than scores from 2019, before the pandemic hit, he acknowledged.
Scores improved slightly from 2022
Scores in math, English and science went up about two percentage points for each subject since last year but stayed well below 2019 levels. In math, 37.6% of students met or exceeded expectations, compared with 44% in 2019, before the pandemic. In English language arts, 51.3% met or exceeded expectations in English, compared with 57.6% in 2019.
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And third grade was an exception in English language arts, with the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations staying stagnant at 42% in 2023. All the other grades, from four through nine, showed some improvement in English scores in 2023.
Math performance on the NJSLA improved in 2023 for all grades. But third graders lagged again — showing the weakest increase. In math, 46% of third graders met or exceeded expectations, just slightly above the 45% in 2022.
The state also released results for the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment, a test that measures graduation readiness among high school juniors. In English, 80.5% of high schoolers had the language skills needed to be graduation-ready, while only a little more than half the state's 11th graders, 55%, had the math skills needed to graduate.
Gaps for Black and Hispanic students 'unacceptable'
State Board of Education members responded to the data with alarm and asked the Education Department to return with more analysis.
The achievement gaps for Black and Hispanic students compared with white and Asian students was “unacceptable,” board member Arcelio Aponte said, adding that the state must find ”a new strategy” to address this.
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For instance, math proficiency for Black students was at 17.1% in 2023, compared with 21.3% for Hispanic students, 48.6% for whites and 73.7% for Asians. English language arts proficiency for Black students was 33.7%, compared with 37.1% for Hispanic students, 61% for whites and 80.6% for Asians.
The board needs a more granular analysis to be able to understand what solutions are needed, said Kathy Goldenberg, the board president. She asked the state to come back with a dissection showing grade-by-grade gaps in math and English among racial and ethnic groups.
Though New Jersey students fared better than other states in reading and math in 2022, according to the first post-pandemic assessments, conducted by the National Assessment of Education Progress, eighth graders had one of the sharpest declines in math proficiency nationally last year, while remaining about the same — and very high nationally — in reading skills.
Math difficulty nationwide
But New Jersey’s low math performance in higher grades echoes nationwide drops in math skills. In the U.S., 15-year-olds saw scores decline in math skills in 2022 compared with 2018, according to results from testing conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which compares students in different nations.
“The U.S. is struggling in math,” said Maureen Kelleher, editorial director at Future Ed, a think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Singapore, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan ranked the highest in average mathematics literacy, followed by European nations. The U.S. ranked 22 in math scores on a list of 37 industrialized countries, Kelleher said.
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Focusing on preschool to second grade is as important as trying to improve third grade scores, she said. Many schools put their best teachers in third grade, when students are learning to read, so that they can go on to “reading to learn” in fourth grade, she said.
“If we’re not thinking through how to map from one year to the next between pre-K and second grade, we’re going to continue to see this kind of third grade plateau and struggle,” Kelleher warned.
The state needs a clear road map to plan how to go forward, said Paula White, executive director of the local education advocacy group JerseyCAN, describing the math scores for juniors as “very, very concerning.” The state’s cut score was lowered last year to 725 for the NJGPA exam. Had the cut score been higher, at 750, the results would be even more devastating, White said.
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“Based on what we know about job growth predictions, health professions are going to see huge growth in coming years,” White said. From EMTs to scientists to doctors, “all these careers require some understanding of math, so if we want students to avail of the jobs of tomorrow we need to give them those skills today."
"I think that we really need to be deliberate in education, with how we engage in instruction and what that looks like on a day-to-day basis," she said. "As long as we don’t have a clear road map, everything we see [in the data] will be very incidental, whether they are upticks or downshifts.”
Programs to address pandemic learning loss
White praised some of the programs the Education Department has adopted to address learning loss, through its New Jersey Partnership for Student Success, a statewide initiative created after the pandemic.
But those programs need to be implemented well and outcomes tracked well to make a difference. “With revised standards, evidence-based grant programs and the introduction of new legislation, progress is afoot, but the time is now to monitor implementation closely,” she said.
She pointed out a free program called RAPID, which appropriated $2 million for early literacy training for teachers in the fiscal year 2023 budget. The questions are how implementation will happen, when it will begin and how well programs like this will be monitored, White said.
State officials described several programs underway to address the drops in scores since the pandemic and to help accelerate learning. They include a $2 million state appropriation for RAPID (Reading Acceleration Professional Integrated Development) that will run through the winter months.
The second part of RAPID will run in upper elementary grades and will begin statewide in January. Both programs will reach educators statewide. Nine colleges will offer services, providing pre-professional learning free of charge for teachers in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension in teaching reading, and leadership seminars for school administrators.
The state is also implementing a high-impact tutoring program to address remedial learning. It awarded $41 million in tutoring grants to about 245 districts among the state's 600 in the fall.
Summer learning institutes were offered over the summer to children with special needs, and this will continue from late January through early February 2024, officials said.
"There are significant concerns, but until we recognize that as a state we need to address issues in our children's lives, we cannot look away from societal impact within households and communities," said state board member Joseph Ricca Jr. "These are tasks that require collaboration, such as addressing absenteeism, overall nutrition and overall mental wellness," he said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Test scores for NJ students up in 2023 but trail pre-COVID levels
