New Jersey: Why Asessment?

When the Core Curriculum Content Standards were adopted in 1996, the state needed a uniform system to determine whether all students are making satisfactory progress toward learning the required knowledge and skills defined in the Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS). If assessments are not done often enough, a student can be lagging far behind without anyone knowing it. If assessments are not done early enough, it will be too late to remedy the deficiencies in his or her education by the time a student reaches high school.

The state currently administers tests at grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight and eleven. The scores on the state tests are used to determine whether or not a school has made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Each school is required to meet a minimum proficiency level to avoid being classified as a school “in need of improvement.” In grade eleven, students must take the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) that tests language arts literacy and mathematics.  Students have three chances to pass all sections of the HSPA in order to obtain a diploma.

Some districts ask why their commercial testing programs are not as good as the state assessments. For the purpose of determining progress of students on achieving New Jersey’s standards, it is essential to have tests that are directly aligned with our own state standards. Commercial tests are not aligned with our standards nor are national assessments.

The state assessments are intended to give students and parents individual feedback on the students’ progress in achieving the standards. Another valuable use of the test scores is to enable the schools to determine strengths and weaknesses of the programs they have designed to enable your children to reach the standards. When all of the districts’ scores are reported in the annual state assessment summary, the Department of Education has a picture of the state’s progress toward meeting the goals of achieving the standards. Scores for every test in each school are reported in the NJ School Report Card, enabling the public to assess the academic performance of their local schools.  Performance on the state assessments is not intended to determine whether a student is promoted or retained in school, nor should it have an impact on a student's report card grades.

More information on state assessments is available at: assessment, NCLB, and Title I.