Families in Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights will not be able to compare their children's state test scores to last year's results.

The New Jersey Department of Education adopted new proficiency cut scores for the NJSLA (New Jersey Student Learning Assessments) in September, switching to a scoring scale with different numbers and thresholds than the previous system. The old test used a fixed 650–850 scale, with a score of 750 marking proficiency at every grade level. The new scale sets proficiency thresholds that vary by grade, from 1,399 for third-grade math to 2,500 for high school algebra, geometry and Algebra II.

No public document exists showing how the old scores translate to the new ones.

NJ21st first reported Thursday, Sept. 10, that the DOE has not released what testing experts call a "crosswalk," a technical bridge linking performance under the two systems. Reporter John Migueis wrote that every Open Public Records Act request his outlet filed seeking that connection came back with the same answer from the DOE: "we don't have that."

Migueis wrote that while the DOE provided the new numbers and some explanation of the redesigned test, his outlet still lacks a bridge showing what a year-over-year change actually means.

The gap matters locally. When Summit, New Providence or Berkeley Heights releases district-level proficiency rates under the new scoring system, a reported jump or drop could reflect real classroom gains, the mechanics of a redesigned test, or both. Without a crosswalk, parents and board members have no way to tell.

The DOE has said the new results can be compared meaningfully across years and that Student Growth Percentiles, or SGPs, can still be calculated because students are compared to peers with similar past performance, according to the department's assessment FAQ updated in August. But as NJ21st noted, an SGP measures individual student growth against similar students. It does not explain what a district's shift in proficiency rates means across two different scoring systems.

The comparability issue first surfaced with the NJGPA (New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment), the high school graduation test. The State Board of Education adopted new NJGPA cut scores on Wednesday, Aug. 5, setting the proficiency threshold at 450 on a 300–650 scale. A State Board presentation listed four reasons graduation-ready rates may not be directly comparable to prior years: the shift from fixed-form to adaptive testing, alignment to the 2023 New Jersey Student Learning Standards, updated performance level descriptors and redesigned test blueprints.

Under those new NJGPA cuts, the statewide graduation-ready rate in English language arts fell to 75.1% from 81.3% the prior year. In math, it rose to 60.3% from 58.5%.

With the September adoption of NJSLA cut scores, the same uncertainty now extends from third grade through high school end-of-course math.

The department has said it will continue assessing the impact of the new assessment and report findings to the State Board. No timeline for releasing a crosswalk or equating study has been announced.

Under state regulation, districts must share Individual Student Reports with families within 30 days of receiving scores from the DOE. When those reports arrive at schools in Summit, New Providence or Berkeley Heights, the numbers will be on the new scale with no publicly available key to the old one.