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TRENTON, NJ—Morganne Firmstone, JerseyCAN’s Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs, issued the following statement today following the NJ Department of Education’s announcement of statewide PARCC results:
“With each year that passes, New Jersey students are continuing to show progress on the statewide PARCC assessment. Now in its third year, more students are reaching grade-level expectations in math and reading, which speaks to the continued hard work and commitment of our students, teachers, parents, and administrators.
“While we would like to see scores arrive earlier, progress has been made on turnaround time, and we are optimistic that this will continue to improve in the future.
“The PARCC exam is an essential tool that measures key skills like critical thinking, problem-solving and persuasive writing—which are vital to the success of our students in higher education and beyond. PARCC is aligned to the learning standards our state has in place, has been shown to be an indicator of college readiness and is an important part of our accountability system under the new federal education law.
“As we look ahead, it is important that New Jersey continues to hold our students to high standards, but we also have to be able to measure progress towards those goals. Parents and taxpayers alike deserve an objective and honest look at how children are doing in our schools. Without this information, we cannot address inequities that may exist.”
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