On the 2026 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments-Adaptive (NJSLA-Adaptive), only 51.1% of students reached grade level in reading and 41.7% in math. Gaps among racial and other student groups persisted, and state officials urged the public not to compare the results directly with past scores because the testing format has changed. Members of the State Board of Education pointed out that tens of millions of dollars have been invested but the effect has not been significant.
According to NJ Spotlight News, about 51.1% of students reached grade level in English (reading) on the 2026 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments-Adaptive (NJSLA-Adaptive), 2 percentage points lower than last year. In math, the figure was 41.7%, unchanged from last year. In both subjects, results are little changed from 2016, a decade ago.
Gaps among student groups were also large. In reading, about 36% of Hispanic and Black students reached grade level, a 43-percentage-point gap from Asian students (nearly 80%). In math, 23% of Black students and 75% of Asian students did so, a gap that widened to 52 percentage points. State Board of Education member Nedd James Johnson said that even with a new benchmark in place, the differences among groups still show up.
In recent years, the state has spent tens of millions of dollars in federal and state funds each year on literacy and math improvement programs. This year's state budget (fiscal year 2027) includes $15 million for "high-impact tutoring," small-group intensive instruction. About $4 million is allotted to literacy programs, and $11.5 million in federal funds is designated for literacy improvement. State Board of Education member Arcelio Aponte said these investments are "not producing the results we hope for" and asked whether the state should invest in other strategies. State Education Commissioner Lily Laux said the state will look at the quality of instruction together with student data, and that it is working to incorporate a "scorecard" for evaluating program outcomes into its strategic plan.
This year was the first time the test switched from a fixed format, in which all students answer the same questions, to a computer-adaptive format, in which the difficulty changes based on a student's answers. Learning standards revised in 2023 were also reflected in the test for the first time. Because both the format and the standards have changed, state education officials urged the public not to compare the results directly with those of previous years.
This applies equally when reading district or school report cards. This year's figures are the first baseline for the new test, so it is safer to compare them with the state averages (51.1% in reading, 41.7% in math) than to compare them simply with last year's. It is also worth checking the figures for individual student groups separately, along with the overall proficiency rate.