Comparison of Performance in MATHEMATICS on the New Jersey 4th Grade Assessment 

New Jersey State Department of Education began testing 4th graders in Spring 1999.  Subsequently the test and its scoring have been the subject of considerable comment and restructuring.   For 2002-03 the test was contracted out to ETS who developed and administered a test identified as NJ ASK.  As a result there is not much value in any year to year comparisons for individual districts, as seen in the charts, but comparisons between groups in the same year are still valid.  

In past year's charts, only the scores of students in the General Education population were considered, but the federal "No Child Left Behind" law requires that the combined scores of all students be reported.  The numbers used here reflect that position for all years which has the added benefit of  factoring out the effects of score management by some districts through classification of some students to other categories.  

As NCLB requires the reporting of scores by among other things, race, the percentage of SOM White and Black students scoring Partially and Advanced Proficient has been added.  The NJDOE also has provided dissaggregated data by dfg.  

In past years NJDOE provided the MEAN score, but has chosen not to do so in the data released for 2002-03.  

The percentage of SO-M students rated as Partially Proficient on the  4th Grade MATH Assessment in 2004 was greater than the percentage for all Suburban NJ students, but the percent of White students in this level is less than that for dfg I.  The percent of Black students scoring Partially Proficient is very high.

The percentage of SO-M students attaining Advance Proficiency on 4th Grade  MATH Assessment was less than that for dfg I although the White percentage is well above the dfg I level.  The Black scores are well below the NJ Suburban percentage.

All data from NJ Report Cards.