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The Record - Reading and math scores dip slightly on N.J. standardized tests
NOVEMBER 5, 2014, 8:31 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2014, 8:36 PM BY HANNAN ADELY
Student scores on New Jersey tests in reading and math last spring dipped slightly from the previous year, dropping by less than a percentage point in high school and in Grades 3 to 8.The scores come from the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge and High School Proficiency Assessment — which are in their final year of use in the state. They are being replaced with a new exam, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, which is tied to the Common Core curriculum standards.The state adopted the Common Core in 2010 and has spent the past few years teaching those standards and preparing for the new online tests that will be required this spring.Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe said that the tests given last spring were also aligned with those standards as part of that transition. He noted that the scores were nearly the same as last year.
“Even with the higher standards being incorporated in New Jersey classrooms, the high levels of student performance have remained steady,” Hespe said.Statewide, 66.3 percent of students in Grades 3 through 8 scored as proficient or better in language arts, down from 66.7 a year earlier. In math, 74.4 percent passed that mark, compared with 74.5 percent a year earlier.In high school, 93.3 percent were proficient or better in language arts exams, down from 93.6. And 84.8 percent passed in math, down from 85.6 percent a year earlier.In Bergen County, Tenafly and Ramsey had the highest percentages of high school students who scored as proficient or above in language arts. Garfield had the fewest.In Passaic County, Wayne Township had the greatest percentage of high school students proficient or better in language arts, while Paterson and Passaic had the fewest. But Paterson had a bright spot with a strong performance on the language arts exam at the Rosa Parks Arts High School. In math high school exams, Ridgewood and Park Ridge were tops in Bergen County while Englewood had the fewest percentage of students who passed. In Passaic County, Wayne Township was at the top while Paterson had the smallest percentage scoring proficient or better.Large achievement gaps remain for poor students and minorities, state data show. The test results, broken down by district and school, are available online at www.state.nj.us/education/schools/achievement.
State officials said the starting point for year-to-year comparisons will change when New Jersey begins using the new tests that were developed by a consortium of states to accompany the Common Core standards.Hespe said the new tests would provide better data to help educators and parents measure student progress and needs. But the tests have been controversial in large part because they will take 10 to 11 hours to complete and will be given twice a year. Some parents and educators say that takes away too much instruction time and compels teachers to “teach to the test.” The governor announced in July that he would form a commission to study the standards and the effectiveness and redundancy of tests.
The commission is supposed to offer recommendations by the end of the year, but no members have been named yet.Hespe also said that more students are taking the SAT and Advanced Placement courses that allow high school students to earn college-level credit.In 2014, 71,513 seniors took the SAT, compared with 64,120 who took the SAT in 2009. About 75 percent of high school seniors now take the college admission exam.In 2009, New Jersey had 38,703 students taking Advanced Placement tests. This year, there are 53,010.Overall, the number of students taking AP courses increased 6.3 percent from last year to this year. The number of African-American students taking those courses increased by 14.9 percent, and the number of Hispanic students increased by 10.5 percent, according to state figures.Email: adely@northjersey.com
NJ Spotlight - School Report Card Shows New Jersey’s Grades Holding Stead
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| yJohn Mooney and Colleen O'Dea | November 6, 2014 |
As NJ moves to Common Core, marginal changes are good news, some states see ratings plummetThe release of New Jersey’s test scores is an annual rite of passage for public schools, an instant snapshot of success -- or not so much -- over the past year. And as the state phases out one era of school testing and enters a new one, the Christie administration is saying that staying level is good enough for now.
The state Department of Education yesterday released the school-by-school scores on the state’s NJASK tests for elementary and middle schools and the HSPA graduation test for the high schools. The statewide scores were announced earlier this year, but yesterday’s presentation before the State Board of Education provided further detail on the results, in addition to the individual school data.
The main message was that relatively static scores over the past few years are actually positive signs, given New Jersey has been moving to the new Common Core State Standards. Other states had seen sharp drops during the transition.Some, like Kentucky and North Carolina, have seen 30-point drops in their passing rates, officials said.“It is hard to celebrate a flat outcome, but it is in fact a pretty good outcome,” said assistant education commissioner Bari Erlichson.
In 2013-2014, 66 percent of the state’s students had passed the NJASK’s language arts test, a tiny drop from the previous year and a three-point drop from five years ago. Seventy-four percent passed in math, also a small drop from the year before but a two-point increase over five years.In the high schools, 85 percent of first-time test takers passed in math, and 93 percent in language arts, both marginal changes from the year before. New Jersey’s transition is culminating this year with the state adopting the new full-aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) online exams. And Erlichson all but acknowledged there is sure to be a drop in passing rates under the new tests, enough so that the state next year will not be doing a year-to-year comparison as it sets a new benchmark.
“It is the end of an era,” Erlichson said. “We intend to treat the PARCC data as the new baseline.”
NJ Spotlight - After the PowerPoint, Newark’s Superintendent Candid about Challenges…Anderson talks about competition from charter schools, time spent getting to know teachers and students’ families
| John Mooney | November 6, 2014 |
The presentation was a familiar one, as Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson came before the State Board of Education yesterday with her progress report for the district. But her exchanges afterward proved a little less predictable, as the embattled superintendent opened up about her own challenges in the community, as well as in the face of the rising charter school presence.Anderson, chided for her rare appearances at public meetings in Newark, came before the state board yesterday for the annual presentation from each of the four state-operated districts.
And her most provocative comments came after her Power Point presentation, when state board members quizzed Anderson on her sometimes-tense relations with the community and her mixed, if not lackluster, student achievement gains. Board member Arcelio Aponte, a Newark native, gave Anderson praise for the gains she presented in the high schools, where test scores and graduation rates have risen in her three years and dropout rates fallen. But then he turned to her elementary schools, where student test scores actually showed a four-point drop in both language arts and math in the four years since Anderson took the job, to 36 percent and 46 percent passing, respectively.
“I’m puzzled to see how those are trending downward,” Aponte said. Anderson’s answer proved a complicated one, saying there was a mix of factors involved. She said there had been ups and downs in those scores in the ensuing years.But maybe in her most provocative answer -- and one to surely fuel further debate in her city -- she pointed to the growing charter school presence in the district as a contributing factor, saying the alternative schools were drawing students from her schools.“We’re losing the higher-performing students to charters, and the needs [in district schools] have gotten larger,” Anderson said.
At another point, Anderson specifically cited some of the district’s highest performing charter schools as clearly serving a different set of students than in some of her toughest schools, “where there are 35 percent if students with special needs.” “I’m not saying they are out there intentionally skimming, but all of these things are leading to a higher concentration of the neediest kids in fewer [district] schools,” she said.
Still, Anderson said that the district’s controversial universal enrollment system – where families go through a central process for both charter and district schools – was aimed to address the disparities. She said the One Newark system could help set what she called as a middle ground between districts that had fully embraced charters and those more resistant. “Let’s say there will be a third way, where we get the best of the innovation, and the best of what district has to offer,” she said.
Her comments about community tensions proved less startling but also more candid than usual, as Anderson continued to defend herself against what has been a rising tide of discontent from at least some quarters. For instance, she was greeted in the back of the hearing room by officials of the Newark Teachers Union, which has intensified up its grievances against her administration over its reassignments and actions against teachers.“There has obviously been a lot of political tumult in Newark,” Anderson said.
“But I will tell you that I spend at least half of my time in teacher brown-bags, coffee klatches with families, classroom visits, grocery store visits, sidewalk mini-conventions. “My experience at the grassroots in Newark is that there are folks totally excited, some folks saying I’m actually moving too slow, and some folks who are taking a wait-and-see attitude,” she said.
As for her refusal to attend the school advisory board’s monthly public meetings, Anderson said that decision came out of what she said was a tenor of political speeches and “100 percent personal attacks” during this spring’s mayoral campaign. But she said she continued to have interactions with the board in other settings, including their committee and working sessions.
“I absolutely feel it is my responsibility to work with the school advisory board,” she said.
