On recheck, thousands of N.J. students fail graduation test
Thousands of New Jersey students may still be in jeopardy of not graduating, based on results of rescored alternative high school exit exams that state education officials released Wednesday.
Thousands of New Jersey students may still be in jeopardy of not graduating, based on results of rescored alternative high school exit exams that state education officials released Wednesday.
The state rechecked a portion of the failing exams from the Alternative High School Assessment test administered in January.
Of 3,015 students with failing math scores that were rechecked, only 288 got passing grades, according to state data. On the language arts test, 1,915 scores were reviewed and only 217 were passing..
The state Department of Education announced its review of the tests after the Education Law Center made public what appeared to be abysmal results of the tests given in January.
According to data obtained by the center, of 9,514 students who took all required parts of the math exam, only 34 percent passed. Of the 4,293 students who took the language exam, only 10 percent passed.
Counting the rescored passing tests, the state says 37 percent of all students passed the math exam and 15 percent of all students passed the language arts exam.
At the time, the state called the Education Law Center data incomplete. However, the state's numbers on students who passed before any rechecks are consistent with the numbers provided by the law center. Last year, the alternative exam - then called the Special Review Assessment - had a 96 percent pass rate. Like the AHSA, it is given to students who fail the High School Proficiency Assessment three times.
This year for the first time, the test was graded by an outside firm, not by the students' teachers. State officials say teachers may have been scoring too leniently.
However, the law center and educators fault unstudied changes to the testing process as well a failure to explain the scoring standard used.
"It's the department that has failed," said Stan Karp, head of the center's Secondary Reform Project.
Some students retook the test last month. They can take it again in August.
The department has said it will offer online tutoring during the summer, although some children's advocates say many of the students lack computer access.
Department officials have said graduation must be earned.
"We must preserve the integrity of a New Jersey diploma," Deputy Education Commissioner Willa Spicer said in a written statement Wednesday.
