US News Says NJ Schools are #1 but Urban Institute Accounts for Low-Income Students and Says NJ Schools Are #16

The NJEA, its president/gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller, and Spiller’s pal Gov. Murphy wasted no time in trumpeting New Jersey’s ranking as the #1 K-12 school system in the most recent US News & World Report study.  New Jersey’s top ranking is good news so far as it goes, and New Jersey educators (rather than the NJEA, Spiller, or Murphy) deserve the lion’s share of the credit. But the reality is that the study presents a skewed picture of education in New Jersey: our numerous high-performing students from wealthier districts obscure the poor results of the many low-income students from disadvantaged districts.  An Urban Institute study shows that when academic results are adjusted for demographic differences, New Jersey is not even in the top ten states overall (#16).

As always, we have NJEdReport to cut through the noise and dig into the details (and we suggest you read the article in full).  Here’s the reality of the US News study:

• The study uses a methodology for its ranking that education experts say is “exceptionally crude, more noise than insight.”
• The study relies on raw achievement data and statewide averages instead of drilling down on how well our schools serve all students, regardless of their demographic circumstances and what school district they are in.
• New Jersey has “a large cohort of high-income students who score very well on standardized tests, which skews averages and effaces the academic outcomes of low-income students, disproportionately Black and Brown.”
• The study did calculate an “educational opportunity” score, which looks at how well the state as a whole serves “underserved students (Black, Hispanic, low-income) relative to their peers.”  For the record, New Jersey ranked #45 in educational opportunity. [It is unclear to what extent this metric was included in the US News methodology].

Thankfully, for ten years, the Urban Institute has ranked state school systems while taking into account the demographic differences among the student bodies in the states.  It looks at a pure measure of academic achievement — results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress  (a.k.a., “The Nation’s Report Card”) and determines how well students did when compared with demographically similar students in other states. That is, they adjust for the same “gender, age, and race or ethnicity and have the same free and reduced-price lunch receipt status, special education status, and English language learner status.”  In other words, it’s an apples-to-apples comparison of students from different backgrounds. 

Here are the Urban Institute’s 2024 results:

4th GRADE MATH

1. Mississippi – 248.6
2. Florida – 247.5
3. Texas – 246.8
4. Lousiana – 245.2
5. Massachusetts – 243.4

#23 New Jersey – 235

4th GRADE READING

1. Mississippi – 228.5
2. Louisiana – 226.5
3. Florida – 222.5
4. Massachusetts – 222.3
5. Indiana – 221

#18 New Jersey – 214.4

8th GRADE MATH

1. Mississippi – 281.3
2. Massachusetts – 280
3. Louisiana – 278.2
4. Illinois – 277.4
5. Indiana – 277.1

#13 New Jersey – 274.3

8th GRADE READING

1. Massachusetts – 266
2. Louisiana – 265.1
3. Georgia – 263.4
4. Mississippi – 263.2
5. Illinois – 261.8

#10 New Jersey – 259.4

So when it comes to educating all students, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Massachusetts are in the top five in all categories.  New Jersey is in the top five in zero categories and its overall average ranking is #16.  That’s not bad but it’s not #1 by any stretch.  

The bottom line is that New Jersey’s higher-income students do very well but our lower-income students do not.  It’s a bit ironic — if not hypocritical — that the NJEA, which prides itself a “social justice union,” would boast of a ranking that does not properly account for New Jersey’s lower-income students, who are “disproportionately Black and Brown.”  There must be something else at work here …