Politics & Government
NJ Spotlight: State Test Scores Reveal Some Gains, Widening Achievement Gap
Budget cuts cost New Jersey school districts $1 billion, with some of the poorest districts paying the biggest price.
The annual release of New Jersey school test scores can be maddening in its mixed messages, according to NJ Spotlight.
On the one hand, the 2010-2011 scores released Wednesday rose slightly or at least held steady overall in a majority of grades, a good thing for what have been tough times. In math, there were some notable gains for any given year.
On the other, state officials are quick to point out that the gaps in achievement between rich and poor, white and minority, are wide and in some instances widening alarmingly.
Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Those results are unsurprising, insofar as they reflect nationwide trends. But the findings have taken on added weight under Gov. Chris Christie and his education reform agenda, much of it aimed at districts where the achievement is lowest.
How the numbers all add up is still to be determined, but there were lessons to be learned at Wednesday's state Board of Education's meeting, as well as considerable talk as to what lies ahead.
Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
For every encouraging result, though, there is troubling evidence of children left behind, and in some cases falling even further behind.
Acting education commissioner Chris Cerf is adamant in highlighting the gaping chasm between low-income students and those not at an economic disadvantage -- rather than between white and Asian students vs. black and Hispanic.
In elementary school language arts, for instance, the gap between low-income students and everyone else is close to 30 percentage points, up from 26 points seven years ago. Among third graders in the state's poorest districts, barely 40 percent passed the state's reading and writing test.
"The bottom line is the achievement gap is wide throughout the state," said Arcelio Aponte, the state board's president. "Although maybe trending up in some cases, it's still a 30 percent gap. How could anyone find that acceptable?"
Continue reading the full article in NJ Spotlight @ State Test Scores.
NJ Spotlight is an online news service providing insight and information on issues critical to New Jersey.
