N.J. Students Top Nation in Writing

N.J. Students Top Nation in Writing

Following last week’s report that New Jersey eighth-graders lead the nation in writing skills, NJSBA President Kevin E. Ciak stressed the need for local school boards to continue focusing on student achievement and for the state to maintain a strong financial commitment to public education.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—known as the “Nation’s Report Card”—shows New Jersey eighth graders placing first in writing. The NAEP is the only comparative state-to-state measure of academic progress.

“Our schools’ strong performance on the Nation’s Report Card underscores the significance of New Jersey’s financial commitment to public education and the value of local school boards focusing on student achievement,” said Ciak. “This has been a recipe for success. For our students, we need to build upon it.

“The higher education and business communities consistently cite the importance of writing as a skill essential for success in the 21st Century college classroom and workplace,” he continued.

The NAEP writing test, given every four years at randomly selected schools, is voluntary for states. Five states did not participate in 2007, but it was the first year New Jersey participated. The recent NAEP writing assessment did not test fourth graders.

NAEP Success The release of writing test results follows recent NAEP statistics on elementary school reading and mathematics skills. Those tests place New Jersey fourth-graders among the top in the nation.

The NAEP is administered in randomly selected schools in 45 participating states. On the writing test, New Jersey’s average score was 175, compared to the national average of 154.

According to the state Department of Education, last week’s reading test results show that New Jersey eighth-graders also performed better than their peers nationwide among the major subgroups tested: male, female, white, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, eligible for the National Lunch Program and not eligible for the National Lunch Program.