The Herald ran a story Oct. 1 that presented the state Department of Education scores for English language arts and mathematics standardized tests for 2024 in all Cape May County school districts. There was one error that the table above corrects. The Wildwood Crest district met the state standard in math; the earlier chart said that it did not.
The error was caused by looking at the scoring levels for previous testing without noting that between then and now the threshold for the state standard had been changed. Where an average score for the district had to be above 44.4% on the previous scale, which dates back to pre-Covid 2019, the standard now is that any score above 40.1% meets the standard. That represented the only change in the scale used by the state for math tests.
In terms of absolute average scores above or below the correct standard, the error affected one district, Wildwood Crest, and that is the correction made to the chart.
Another issue has surfaced since the chart was first published. In another state report based on the same 2023-2024 performance year Wildwood Crest is listed as having met the state standard for English language arts not based on its absolute average score, but rather on what a footnote in the report calls a confidence interval.
Such an interval is a range of values calculated from the data on any one district within which a number above or below the standard value could be contained.
The Herald has elected to stand with reporting the average score, as the state does in its summary performance reports, and to report the designation that the state gives to that score in that report. To do anything else opens up a report to the public to statistical intervals and something the second state report calls the performance rate for federal accountability.
The chart stands as the state’s report of a single score and a designation for that score in the state’s summary report. Any reader wishing to see either the summary report or the 66-page detailed report for comparison can find them here.
-Vince Conti
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
