School Testing Data: See How NJ High School Students Fared

How did New Jersey's high school students fare on the state's assessments in the 2024-25 school year?

The state Department of Education released the results of the testing conducted in the spring for the Graduate Proficiency Assessments, the 11th grade science assessment, along with 9th grade English language arts, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and geometry.

You can see how your student's school fared in the chart at the bottom of this article.

Concerns about student performance have been heightened since the pandemic, and while scores decreased for a few years, the 2024-25 assessments showed improvement, according to state officials.

Of particular focus has been the Graduate Proficiency Assessments. New Jersey is one of six states in the United States that require students to pass an assessment to graduate.

That requirement has been challenged for several years by education advocates who say standardized tests do not provide an accurate view of a student's understanding or abilities, and a bill sponsored by State Sen. Shirley Turner to eliminate it as a graduation that has been pending throughout the 2024-25 Legislative session continues to gather dust.

The assessments, administered by Pearson, score on a range of 650 to 850, and set 750 as the cutoff score for proficiency on the NJGPA, the 9th grade English Language Arts, Algebra 1 and 2 and geometry tests. The science assessment is the only one that scores differently, with a range of 100 to 300 and 200 as the proficiency scores.

Of particular focus has been the Graduate Proficiency Assessments, which New Jersey students must pass to receive their high school diploma. New Jersey is one of six states in the United States that require students to pass an assessment to graduate.

Those who do not achieve a proficient score on the NJGPA can meet the graduation requirement by passing one of four other standardized tests — the PSAT, SAT, ACT, or ACCUPLACER — or by submitting a portfolio appeal to the state Department of Education.

According to the state data, 81.3 percent of New Jersey students passed the English language arts portion of the NJGPA, and 58.5 percent were proficient in math.

The requirement to pass an exam to graduate in New Jersey has been challenged for several years by education advocates who say standardized tests do not provide an accurate view of a student's understanding or abilities, anda bill sponsored by State Sen. Shirley Turner to eliminate it as a graduation that has been pending throughout the 2024-25 Legislative session continues to gather dust.

Chris Tienken, a professor at Seton Hall University who is an expert on standardized testing, notes that the 750 cut score on the NJGPA exceeds the score required by colleges and universities on the SAT and the ACT to prove college readiness.

Tienken, in an interview with Patch when the current NJGPA tests were instituted in the 2022-23 school year, said the tests are more a reflection of the community and family resources of the student and the lives they experience than what they are learning in the classroom.

"With a lot of these tests, the language, the examples, the types of situations are aligned very strongly to a white middle-class lifestyle," he said at the time. "If you don’t have similar life experiences you won't understand the context of the question."

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz, an advocate of keeping the graduation requirement, told NJ Spotlight that the tests are "a data point for us to create better policies" and services to help students improve.

The table below is searchable by school and by district and includes tests administered both to middle school students who take algebra as well as high school students.

Places where there is an asterisk instead of a score indicates the state Department of Education withheld the average because of a small student sample. NA indicated the test was not administered at that school.

For the 2025-26 school year, a new exam is in place, called the New Jersey Graduate Proficiency Assessments-Adaptive. The test questions vary based on how students are scoring, NJ.com reported.
The new tests are being administered by Cambium Assessment.

“As students progress through the test, future questions are determined based on their responses, creating a more personalized and appropriate experience for each learner,” the state’s memo to schools said. “This approach can help reduce testing anxiety by presenting students with questions closer to their current level, encouraging confidence and focus," the report said.