At Wake Up Call NJ, we’re lifelong learners. That’s why we’re excited to join you all in our “Summer School” Series, where we’ll hear from notable advocates for New Jersey students. The first in the series is a joint effort from Yvonne Greenbaun and Maria De Lucia who provide us with a perspective from higher education that bridges their past experiences with today's policies. Happy reading and remember your sunscreen.
It’s graduation time in New Jersey. High school seniors will cross graduation stages having near perfect GPAs and hopes for the future. As retired New Jersey community college mathematics faculty and chairs of our respective departments, we have concerns for the future of these students because of the harm done by prioritizing comfort over preparation. With over eighty years of experience between us, we have watched as the divide between high school grades and standardized testing scores continues to reveal a growing crisis in unchecked grade inflation. This is not a commentary on student ability, but a call for awareness of the effects of grade inflation.
As far back as 2009, we testified before New Jersey’s Joint Committee on Public Schools about the lack of preparedness of high school graduates, evidenced by over 50% of the newly graduated high school students who were enrolled in remedial courses after taking a placement test. The current data are just as troubling: in 2025, fewer than 60% of our graduating students were college ready in math. Yet New Jersey boasts a 91.8% graduation rate.
To boost student self-esteem and appease anxious parents, high schools have decoupled grades from actual mastery. An ‘A’ is no longer a marker of exceptional academic achievement; it has become the default reward for compliance or attendance. New Jersey’s proposal to eliminate the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (Bill A4121) would allow students to graduate from high school without demonstrating that they have mastered the minimal skills necessary for future success, whether in college or in the workforce. It would also further mask the divide between grades and test scores.
Recently, more than 1,500 University of California math and science professors called for the return of the SAT requirement after many of them have had to spend the bulk of their time in the classroom reteaching newly admitted students middle-school mathematics. Most of the Ivy League schools have already reinstated the SAT/ACT requirement. Many colleges and universities are requiring mathematics and English placement tests to gauge the academic competency of entering students.
We have come to know that mathematics is a bridge to success, not a barrier. We need parents to become aware of what data are available to them and how to understand and use them. We need parents to question why test scores may conflict with what course grades and report cards say. When grades and test scores do not align, it is time to ask why.
Maria De Lucia, Ph.D., is a former faculty member and chair of the Mathematics Department at Middlesex College.
Yvonne Greenbaun is a former mathematics faculty member and chair of the Mathematics Department at Mercer County Community College.
