Nearly 15 percent of New Jersey 11th graders skip new test

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Preliminary results show nearly 15 percent of New Jersey high school juniors and less than 5 percent of grades three through eight refused to take a new standardized test being given for the first time this year in all districts, state education officials said Wednesday.

The test is being given in all districts twice. Most finished the first round last month; the second round begins later this month.

The test, intended to measure whether students are meeting the nationwide Core Content standards, are the subject of criticism and a boycott movement in New Jersey and many of the dozen other states where they have been rolled out this year.

State education officials have warned that districts where less than 95 percent of eligible students take the test could risk losing federal education money, though critics doubt that will happen.

"This is a halftime moment where we wanted to share a snapshot," Education Commissioner David Hespe said in a phone interview about the test, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

The state Department of Education sent the preliminary information in a memo to school officials Wednesday.

Some parents and teacher groups called for boycotts of the test, saying it is confusing, takes up too much teaching time, and costs too much for schools to buy enough computers to administer it. They also object to what they say is a culture of high-stakes testing and to using the results as part of teachers' evaluations.

Supporters say that unlike past tests, the readiness tests measure critical thinking skills. They say the results will give parents and educators more information on how well students are learning.

Also Wednesday, the department told school officials that students who refuse to take the test do not have to "sit and stare" in the room where they're being given, as some schools have mandated. They said students also do not have to be locked in the testing room after they finish the exams; many students are completing them in far less than the allotted time.

Hespe said New Jersey schools should be proud that 98 percent of the exams given so far were online rather than with paper and pencil. That key feature of the new testing should help prepare students for coming changes in exams, like the SAT, he said.

The refusal numbers could change when the complete data is in. Also, the data has not yet been combed over to make sure students weren't double-counted, for instance.

The department data does not provide grade-by-grade breakdowns or list which districts saw the most students opt out of the test.

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