The holiday season is officially upon us. Twinkling lights, polar bears in soda commercials, the same four songs over and over - and of course the long overdue New Jersey statewide test results.
Yes, nothing quite says “New Year” like the scores from a test taken in May. But what’s seven months to a 4th grader? Just 6% of their entire life. Just enough time to grow a few shoe sizes, make new friends, and forget all about their progress from last year.
Maybe NJ education officials are hoping we’ll all forget. Because while the scores - just released on 12/3/25 - show modest improvement, we’re still below 2018-19 levels. That means hundreds of thousands of NJ students are sitting in math class not understanding what is being taught. But don’t worry, we are the number 1 state in the country for education!
The NJSLA results aren’t just for data geeks; this information can help guide state policy, local instructional decisions, and individual student support. But currently districts receive results a week before school starts, parents receive individual results in October, districtwide scores are made public in November, and statewide results come in December. That makes productive use of the results impossible.
Instead of showing movies in class in June, classroom teachers could use these data to tailor instruction for students; summer programming could address learning gaps; and next year’s coursework could seamlessly build on a student's prior knowledge.
At a district level, the scores matter for orienting strategic plans and budgets towards specific academic outcomes. And from the state perspective, the data allows us all to learn from 600 districts, share best practices, allocate student services such as tutoring, and inform state policymaking. .
So if delaying the release of test scores is NJ’s approach to being data-driven, we’re idling for more than half the year.
Meanwhile, other states manage to release their results months earlier. There’s no excuse for New Jersey’s delay. It’s a choice - one that leaves parents, teachers, and administrators with fewer options. And as is often the case with opportunity cost, our students pay the greatest price.
