Schools
Grades and Achievement Gap: Nation's Report Card Scores NJ on Both
State's public school students excel in math and reading, but wide achievement gaps persist
The annual numbers from the Nation's Report Card can be confounding. Test scores cutting across grades, subjects, incomes, and racial groups . . .
That makes it easier to understand how by some measures -- according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released Tuesday -- New Jersey is tops in the nation. Or close. By others, it's in the middle of the pack. Or worse.
Bottom line: New Jersey's public school students once again did quite well overall, arguably as well as any.
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The new NAEP numbers are for Grades 4 and 8 in reading and math. As they typically do, New Jersey students finished in the top three in both grades and on both tests. New Jersey's scores were as good as any state's in the country except, arguably, Massachusetts,.
And while the headlines will be about how the nationwide numbers haven't much changed in recent years -- a seeming indictment of public education, standardized testing, or both -- New Jersey's scores have seen slow but steady growth over the past decade.
