2007 New Jersey Statewide Assessment Results: Highlights and Trends

1. 2007 New Jersey StatewideAssessment Results: Highlights and Trends State Board of Education, February 6, 2008 Jay Doolan, Ed.D., Assistant Commissioner, Division of Educational Standards and Programs Timothy Peters, Ph.D., Director, Office of State Assessments

2. 2007 Assessment Results: Highlights • NJ children continued their strong performance in meeting state standards, particularly in grades 3-5; • Continued progress with achievement gaps and in Abbott districts; • Comparisons of 2006 to 2007 show modest gains in some areas, flat elsewhere; • Improvements by Special Education (SE) and Limited English Proficient (LEP) students; • Evidence of a troubling LAL gender gap.

3. Reminders - • 2006-2007 was second year in which NJ met full NCLB mandates for testing in grades 3-8 and high school, with science in three grade levels; • 2006-2007 represented second and final year of interim grade 5-7 program; • 2007 saw awarding of new contract for redesigned assessments in grades 3-8, starting with grades 5-8 in 2007-2008; • Scoring scale: 100 – 300; 200= proficient; 250 = advanced proficient.

4. Elementary Grades 3-5 • Scores for total population show modest improvements or remain level; however; • Continued improvement by SE students in grade 4 math; • Notable improvement in grade 4 math for Hispanic and African-American students – steady rise in performance from 1999-2007. • Approximately three-fourths of Hispanic students and over two-thirds of Black students are now proficient or advanced proficient in grade 4 math.

7. Elementary Grades 3-5, cont. • Longer term trend for grade 4 math total population shows notable progress: • Mean scale score increase from 217.3 in 1999 to 234.1 in 2007; • Increase in advanced proficiency from 25.2 in 1999 to 41.0 in 2007; • Grade 4 science mean score increases from 224.2 in 2005 to 231.3 in 2007.

8. Elementary Grades 3-5, cont. • Improvements among total population at grade 5 LAL and math; also – • Improvements among SE and LEP students: • Grade 5 SE students: 5.7 point increase in LAL from 2006 to 2007; • Grade 5 SE math: increase of 5.8 points over 2006; • Grade 5 LEP LAL: 7.7 points increase over 2006; • Grade 5 LEP math: 7.5 point increase over 2006.

10. Middle Grades 6-8 • Grade 6 students improved notably in math from 70.8% proficient or above to 79.0%; • Improvements among grade 6 SE and LEP populations: • Grade 6 SE math: increase of 13.4 points over 2006; • Grade 6 LEP math: 17.3 point increase over 2006; • Grade 6 LAL and grade 7 math and LAL largely unchanged.

11. Middle Grades 6-8, cont. • Grade 8 total student population: 73.6% proficient or above in LAL; 68.4% proficient or above in mathematics; • Grade 8 LAL performance remains flat, both from 2006 to 2007 and from 1999 to 2007; • Continued improvement in math and science by SE students; • But Grade 8 Math shows increase of almost 12 points from 2003 to 2007, and total mean scale score increased from 209.2 to 215.5 points.

14. High School (Grade 11) • Modest improvement in HSPA LAL: 85.3% proficient or above in 2007, up from 83.5% in 2006 • Slight downturn in HSPA math, from 75.9% in 2006 to 73.4% proficient or above in 2007 – this may increase student participation in SRA in 2008 • Overall trend since 2002 has been a steady rise in both content areas, from 81.1% proficient or above in LAL in 2002 to 85.3% in 2007; in math, from 68.6% in 2002 to 73.4% in 2007.

17. High School (Grade 11), cont. Achievement gaps greatest in mathematics: • Gap in math between African-American and white students narrowed by 2.9 points from 2002 to 2007, from 43.7 to 40.8; • Gap in math between Hispanic and white students narrowed by 6.4 points from 2002 to 2007, from 34.6 point gap to 28.2.

22. GENDER GAPS • Female students have closed or almost closed gap math gender gap; but • Troubling LAL gap affecting males: • Elementary and middle school grades – females exceed male student achievement in grades 3-8; • HSPA – female LAL performance 8.6 percentage points higher than males.

27. Progress Among Abbott Districts • Grade 4 math: 69.3% proficient or advanced in 2007, up from 45.0% proficient or advanced in 2003; • Grade 4 LAL: 62.2% proficient or advanced in 2007, up from 55.6% in 2003; • Grade 8 math: 39.7% proficient or advanced, up from 29.2% in 2003.

28. Next Steps for 2008 • Implement redesigned statewide assessment system for Grades 3-8 initiated by Assessment Advisory Committee; • Encourage and expand district use of formative assessment resources provided by DOE; • Provide additional professional development in assessment literacy; • Encourage and expand district use of NJ SMART data warehouse to analyze student achievement; • Complete high school redesign policy work to implement curriculum and assessment goals for New Jersey; • Continue to implement NJQSAC to assure that mandates and practices are in place to improve the quality of learning in New Jersey for all students.

29. New Jersey 2007 Statewide Assessment Results: Highlights and Trends • QUESTIONS?