National Report Shows African American, Latino and Low-Income Students Making Gains

TRENTON-New Jersey's public schools are making notable progress in closing the achievement gap between African American, Latino and low-income students and their classmates, Governor Jon S. Corzine and Education Commissioner Lucille Davy announced today. A national study released this morning, State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08, indicates that between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of students proficient in math and reading has increased throughout the state.

At the fourth-grade level, math proficiency for African American students increased from 63% to 68%. For Latino students, the proficiency rate rose from 72% to 76% and for low-income students, math proficiency grew from 68 % to 72%. Scores for White students rose from 90% to 92% while proficiency scores for Asian students improved from 94% to 95% and Native American student results rose from 78% to 83%.

Moderate improvements were experienced in fourth-grade reading scores.  From 2006-2008, the percentage of fourth-grade African American students reaching reading proficiency grew from 63% to 67%. Proficiency rates for Latino students increased from 67% to 73% and low-income student figures rose from 63% to 69%. For White students, reading proficiency grew  from 88% to 89%.  Asian student scores improved from 91% to 93% while Native American student proficiency decreased slightly from 73% to 72%.

"We are on the right track, but much hard work remains for us to make sure that every child in New Jersey has an equal chance at a quality education and a bright future," said Governor Corzine. "Improving educational opportunities for all children throughout the state is a priority of this administration. I applaud our partners, the educators, the families and most of all, our students for achieving these significant gains."

Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy thanked the Governor for his leadership and steadfast support of a first-class education for New Jersey's students.

"Governor Corzine has been unwavering in his commitment to a bright and prosperous future for our young people," she said.

"Under his leadership, we have in place a new school funding formula that ensures that schools have the resources they need to help our students succeed in a global economy," Commissioner Davy continued.  "But beyond that, he has introduced programs designed to address the needs of our most vulnerable students, such as at-risk preschool students and students with autism.

"The CEP report is a clear sign that our approach to improving teaching and learning is working and that the investment in our schools is paying off," the Commissioner said.

The achievement gap is a term used by educators to describe a disparity in student achievement between all students tested and specific racial-ethnic groups, and between more affluent students and their economically disadvantaged counterparts.  Educators throughout of the United States have attempted to tackle the problem with a wide variety of programs over the past decade, but the achievement gap has persisted.

The report released today studied the performance of students on standardized tests across the country based on their racial-ethnic backgrounds and economic status.  It also detailed performance on exams by special education students and students who are limited English proficient.

"A clear trend of narrowing gaps was evident for all major subgroups at the elementary and high school levels," according to the CEP profile of New Jersey's results for fourth-grade and eleventh-grade students.  For grade four math, "gains were notably large for African American and low-income students at the proficient-and-above level."

CEP reported New Jersey's general trend by stating, "With just one exception, achievement gaps for African American, Latino and low-income students narrowed in reading and math at the elementary levels."

To access the entire report, visit: www.cep-dc.org

"We view these results as the beginning of a trend," Commissioner Davy said.  "We have to continue to build our education system from high quality preschools to re-designed high schools, with effective programs in all grades in-between."

The report released today by the Washington. D.C. based Center for Education Policy (CEP) comes just a few weeks after New Jersey schools received praise from Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University where she has launched the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the School Redesign Network and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and member of the National Academy of Education. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school restructuring, teacher quality and educational equity. In 2006, she was named one of the nation's 10 most influential people affecting educational policy over the last decade.

Writing for the National Journal.com in response to the question "What are the Best Methods for School Improvement?" Darling-Hammond wrote:

New Jersey has succeeded because of its systematic approach to education improvement.  Across the state, it invested in quality preschool.  It made real investments in quality teacher pedagogy.  And it did so in a wholesale way, moving past an era of pilot projects and heading directly into wholesale, systemic improvement.

The results speak for themselves.  Today, New Jersey, a state where 45 percent of students are of color, ranks first in the nation in writing performance on NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) and among the top five states in every other subject area - competing neck-and-neck with states that have many fewer low-income students of color.

Taking demographics into account, New Jersey is arguably the highest achieving state in the nation.  It has cut its achievement gap in half over the last decade, and its African American and Hispanic students outscore the average student in California.

"I am always gratified to hear our accomplishments validated by others, particularly from such distinguished educators such as Dr. Darling-Hammond and respected organizations such the Center for Education Policy," Commissioner Davy said.  "When I meet educators from other states, they praise our efforts and want to know the ‘secrets to our success.'  We are seen as a leading state in many areas of school reform."

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