This story was originally published by NJ Spotlight News through the NJ News Wire.
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More than half of New Jersey third graders are not meeting literacy standards, and an overwhelming majority of eighth graders are not hitting math standards, signaling that post-pandemic learning trends continued under the modernized state exams that were administered in the spring.
The New Jersey Department of Education last week shared a preliminary look at grade-level proficiency rates for students in grades 3 through 9 who took the state Student Learning Assessments-Adaptive in math and reading in April and May.
The nearly five-month lag before results are slated to reach school district leaders on Sept. 18 is one of the longest in recent years. Districts have said the gap will delay targeted extra help for students this school year. The state says the wait for results will be shorter next year.
State Education Department leaders warn against using the results from the spring state exams as a direct comparison to prior years, which used standards from 2016.
“These results represent a new starting point, rather than a direct continuation of previous years’ data,” said Lisa Haberl, executive director of teaching and learning at the New Jersey Department of Education. “The key question is not whether the proficiency rates went up or down compared to previous assessments. Rather, the most critical question is what these results tell us about student performance under the new assessment framework and how we can use that information to support continuous improvement.”
After school districts receive individual student test results, it may take a few more weeks for parents or guardians to receive copies. That delay may also cause families, busy with a new school year and routines, to pay less attention to the results and overlook where students stand.
New minimums
The release of the spring test results comes after the New Jersey State Board of Education approved new cut scores for the exams in each grade at a meeting on Wednesday. It was the final step in the statewide implementation of the new “adaptive” assessments.
These spring state tests changed from fixed-form tests, which give students the same questions, to adaptive tests that adjust the difficulty based on students’ answers. The adjustment keeps students engaged and provides a more precise look at strengths and weaknesses, according to the Education Department.
Because it’s a different exam, the state Education Department followed industry protocol to create descriptions of performance levels and cut scores, a process known as “standard setting.”
Cut scores are the minimum a student can achieve to fall into one of five levels: did not yet meet expectations, partially met expectations, approaching expectations, met expectations, and exceeded expectations. The two highest levels, “met expectations” and “exceeded expectations,” are combined to create an overall proficiency rate.
The process to determine those cut scores took all summer as officials aligned results with the state’s latest learning expectations for English language arts and math, which were updated in 2023.
“We’re not simply comparing two administrations of the same test. We’re comparing assessments developed under different standards, different guidance documents, and different definitions of proficiency,” said John Boczany, director of assessments at the New Jersey Department of Education. “This is a new assessment system creating a new baseline.”
Results from the spring 2027 tests are expected to reach school districts by June 30.
Major drop in Algebra 2
At first glance, most of the 2026 proficiency rates per grade in each subject don’t show large fluctuations compared to last year. Aggregated data, though, aren’t yet publicly available.
“As we review the data, we would naturally expect to see some variation given the change in assessment,” Haberl said.
In one case, however, the proficiency rate for Algebra 2 took a major swing, to 45.5% in 2026 from 80.4% in 2025.
“We see areas where performance appears relatively consistent across grades and content areas, while other areas warrant closer examination,” said Haberl, adding that Algebra 2 is a notable example. “Proficiency rates shifted more than we might have anticipated when compared to patterns seen in other mathematics assessments and courses.”
An initial review showed that the assessment was taken by fewer than 10% of students who were enrolled in Algebra 2, Boczany said.
A student’s first high school math class could be geometry or Algebra 2, depending on their school and course plan. That may explain the smaller pool of students who took the Algebra 2 assessment. The updated learning standards for Algebra 2 also included more complex work, Boczany said.
Consistency in literacy, math
The majority of third and fourth graders statewide did not meet grade-level expectations in English language arts, which is commonly referred to as literacy or reading, preliminary results showed.
About 47.2% of third graders and 45.6% of fourth graders show proficiency in grade-level reading in the spring 2026 exams. Last year, those rates were 44.9% of third graders and 53.6% of fourth graders.
Grade-level reading proficiency in third and fourth grades has been put into sharp focus after the COVID-19 pandemic and switch to remote instruction caused learning disruptions, particularly for early childhood education.
State test results following the pandemic have consistently shown New Jersey third graders struggling to read. Experts say third grade is a critical point when students shift to “reading to learn” from “learning to read.”
In recent years, more school districts have adopted literacy curricula to follow the science of how students learn to read, which puts an emphasis on phonics. The state has also adopted policies to track literacy skills in kindergarten through third grade.
Meanwhile, the proficiency rate for eighth grade math remains the lowest among all grades, consistent with the prior exam. About 22.5% of eighth graders showed proficiency on the 2026 exam. Last year, that rate was 20.7%.
The overwhelmingly low proficiency rate is due in part to a 2022 federal mandate requiring states to test eighth graders in advanced math classes, such as Algebra 1 or geometry, separately from those who are not in those classes.
State education leaders say that distinction lowered the overall proficiency rate for eighth graders, though it provides a clearer tracking of students who are not in advanced math.
