When we started Wake Up Call NJ, we established three principles to build our awareness efforts around: (1) Shine a bright spotlight on the truth; (2) Do not point fingers; and (3) Do not fixate on “silver bullet” solutions. We continue to believe widespread awareness is the first step to making the systemic improvements that NJ public school students deserve.
Since our first campaign in February 2025, the response across the Garden State has been overwhelming. Our message resonated across parents, educators and policymakers. While some may have found our spotlight too bright, no one disputed the breadth of alarming academic performance data we cited.
Then something unexpected happened. We began to hear from advocates across the country wanting to thank us, learn more about us, and duplicate our efforts in their own home states.
And last week, international recognition came knocking. We brought home 3 Telly Awards – one gold and two silvers - for our creative campaigns "Slow Results" and "Amelia Will Never be a Doctor." With over 14,000 global entries, we were chosen to join the likes of Will Smith, Jimmy Kimmel, South Park, and Dude Perfect in the winners circle.
But just when the celebration was in full swing, news came which sobered us up real quick.
The New York Times dropped a bombshell story citing a ‘Generation-Long Decline’ in our country’s academic performance that “cuts across income, geographic and racial divides.” The story is based on a report from Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth highlighting each state’s 10-year performance and bounceback from COVID. There are countless data points you can dig into that show alarming drops in math and reading. But we think Nat Malkus of AEI summarizes the situation the best: “I cannot be more emphatic: This is an enormous problem that’s not getting enough attention.”
Luckily, Nat and this report weren’t talking about New Jersey, the undisputed #1 state in the country for education. Just kidding, of course they were!
But here’s the twist: New Jersey students actually made gains from 2015 to 2017.
What went wrong in 2018? That’s when our state began lowering thresholds for students to graduate, eliminating basic skills from teacher training, and de-emphasizing student outcomes when assessing both the performance of districts and educators. Coupled with NJ’s COVID school closures, among the longest in the nation, these policy choices resulted in a decline of almost 1 full grade level of reading and math learning from 2017 to 2025.
While we invite you to celebrate our multiple Telly awards, know that New Jersey students clearly need much more than your good times and your laughter too.
Take Action
Attention shifts quickly. With the spotlight on education (for once), now is the time to see how your district performed and how far students have fallen behind in the last few years. Then you can ask your school board what their plan is.
