NJ Education Report

SAT scores are in the news today. The Star-Ledger’s lede is that New Jersey students’ average SAT scores “inched upward one point this year,” though that still leaves them below the national average. The N.J. DOE says that’s okay: we have a higher proportion of kids who take the test, the 6th highest in the nation.

Here’s the real news:

Camden High School has 392 juniors and seniors. 55 took the SAT. Average scores were 344 in Math, 346 in Verbal, and 335 in Essay. Indian Hills High Schools in Bergen County has 465 juniors and seniors. 210 took the SAT. Average scores were 541 in Math, 544 in Verbal, and 547 in Essay. (DOE data here.)

Buried in the bottom of the Star Ledger story is the real lede:

Students [in New Jersey] from families with an income between $40,000 and $60,000, who accounted for 13 percent of test takers, averaged a score of 1433. Those from families with an income of $200,000 or more — 9 percent of test takers — did 269 points better.

And the average math score of African-Americans trailed the average score of whites by 117 points. African-Americans made up 12 percent of test takers, while whites made up 58 percent. In 2004, that difference was 109 points.

In other words, in the last 5 years, the discrepancy in SAT scores between African-American test-takers in N.J. and white test-takers in N.J. increased by 8 points.

Public education in N.J. is a bargain if you go to Indian Hills High School and a raw deal if you go to Camden High School. The Star-Ledger’s talking head for the piece is Rutgers Professor William Firestone, who surmises that the discrepancy is due to the failure of No Child Left Behind and other “proposed legislative remedies,” which is, we assume, an allusion to the “Race to the Top” priorities (expansion of charter schools and linking teacher evaluation to student performance). Tell that to the kids at Camden High.