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Newark Public Schools students inched closer to pre-pandemic levels on statewide assessments this spring, with English language arts and math scores up by roughly 3 percentage points over last year, according to a district analysis presented last week.
On average, 34% of district students in grades 3 to 9 passed the English language arts test – roughly a percentage point under the 2019 score – while 21.1% of students passed the math test, according to the district’s overview of spring 2025 New Jersey Student Learning Assessment scores. In spring 2024, 31% of students passed the English portion of the test, while 17.7% passed the math assessment.
Former English language learners continue to be the highest performing subgroup across all student populations in English language arts, according to the district. The results indicate that Newark students are continuing to recover from pandemic-era learning disruptions, but the majority are still falling short of state standards. In recent years, district leaders have bolstered tutoring, summer and Saturday school efforts, and introduced a new reading and writing curriculum to help further students’ academic recovery.
The new scores come five years after the emergence of COVID-19 and are the fourth round of tests given to students since then. They also coincide with the district’s fifth year of local control, following 25 years of state oversight of Newark’s public schools.
The state Education Department has not yet released statewide scores publicly. Newark’s analysis is based on state test results given to school districts ahead of time.
Newark’s scores this year are in line with national trends, said Superintendent Roger León, during the September board meeting when scores were presented.
“Students who are in the older grades are able to demonstrate better recovery than the students that are in the younger grades, and English language arts is moving a whole lot faster than the area of mathematics,” León added.
Students who were in grades 5 and 6 in 2020 may need about five years to fully recover, and even longer for those entering eighth grade or high school now, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit that develops assessments to measure K-12 schools’ student achievement. Students from different racial and ethnic groups, such as Black and Latino, and low-income backgrounds were among the hardest hit by the pandemic’s effects. In Newark, more than 90% of students identify as Black or Latino.
The results are filled with “bright spots” but “do not eclipse the real work that we still have to do,” said Rochanda Jackson, executive director of the Office of Data and Research, who presented the scores last week.
Of the district’s roughly 41,000 students, 3,892 students moved up at least one proficiency level in English language arts since last year, while 3,225 did so in math, according to the district’s analysis.
Students who stayed enrolled from third to fourth grade and seventh to eighth grade saw their average pass rate increase between 2 and 2.5 percentage points, Jackson added. Those who stayed enrolled from fourth to fifth grade and from fifth to sixth grade saw a 3 percentage point increase, while students from sixth to seventh grade saw the largest gain at nearly 8 percentage points, Jackson said.
“These seventh graders were babies in the pandemic. In 2020, they were in the second grade. They spent nearly two years getting foundational math knowledge and virtual classroom experiences they didn’t know,” Jackson added.
Since students began taking the state test after the pandemic, all grades have seen steady growth in English language arts, Jackson said. In 2019, just under 35% of Newark students reached proficiency levels in English, while about 24% of students did so in math.
In comparison to last year, scores in English language arts went up across all elementary grade levels, Jackson said. Students’ math skills are also improving, but more slowly than English language arts, according to the district’s analysis.
As the district continues to work on students’ academic recovery, Jackson said that “with time, rigor, and consistency,” the district can “change the trajectory of students’ lives.”
“We need to keep these at the forefront of our thoughts as we continue to strategize on what needs to be done to accelerate beyond pre-pandemic performance to mastery and sustained academic excellence,” Jackson added.
Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
