NJ Exam Won’t Be Graduation Requirement Under New Law

NEW JERSEY - A statewide high school exit exam will not be used as a graduation requirement under a bill Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law this week.

Instead, the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment will be used as a field test to aid the state in creating proficiency tests for future graduates, according to the legislation.

Local boards of education also can’t base graduation requirements on the results of the test, the law reads.

In 2021, the state Board of Education approved to administer the test to 11th graders from 2023 until 2025, after the graduation exams were nixed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Standardized testing has been state law since 1979.

But under a new proposal sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the current exam would be scrapped for another plan.

The bill proposes a new plan to be developed by the state Department of Education within 60 days of the bill becoming law, but it’s still unclear whether the test will be replaced or tossed completely. The proposed legislation passed the Senate last week.

“This may not be the answer, but it at least starts the process,” Ruiz said in an interview with NJ Spotlight about the bill. “We want the commissioner to come up with the solution, and when they figure out what that is, then we come back and change the statute.”