Two out of every three Cape May County students attend school in districts where average test scores were below state standards in both English language arts and mathematics.
The test scores for the 2023-2024 school year, released by the state Department of Education, showed that 30% of the students in county’s 15 active public school districts attend school in districts that met both standards.
Those students who did not fall into either of those groups are in districts where the average scores in one of the two subject areas met standards but were below in the other.
Put by enrollment, 7,960 students out of a total county enrollment of 11,343 attended school in districts where the district averages did not meet state standards in both subject areas. Some 3,383 students were in districts that did meet standards in both.
The state conducts the performance testing through the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments program, and the tests are administered annually in the spring to students in grades 3 to 9 for English language arts and grades 3 to 8 for math.
They are meant to test proficiency as measured by state learning standards. Ninth graders get exams specific to their math courses, and eleventh graders take the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment test.
The tests can result in one of three categories for a district or school. The district or school can be below expectations, meet expectations, or exceed expectations.
The test scores are only one measure of school performance. They are a component of the overall score the Department of Education gives to each school/district. The score is called a summative score, another measure of overall school performance, and it is calculated using the standardized test scores, measures of student academic growth, graduation rates for high schools and other factors. The summative scores are on a scale of 0 to 100.
Of the 15 districts in the county, which have a total of 20 schools that meet the grade-level threshold for testing beginning in the third grade, only six schools have summative scores above 50. After that the summative scores drop off precipitously, leaving some districts with scores in the teens.
One factor that is often raised when looking at performance test results after the pandemic is the question of pandemic-induced learning loss. All evidence suggests that learning loss did happen and that some districts across the state recovered better than others, as they all applied significant new funds from the federal government in the form of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds, known better as ESSER funds.
An examination of the scores from the 2017-2018 school year, a year that predates the pandemic, finds the county’s scores were similarly weak in comparison to state learning standards. In that year four school districts met the state standards in both English and math, four others met the standards in one of the two areas, and seven were below standards in both.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
