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District Testing

Contact

Daniel Gallant
Supervisor of Educational Technology
and District Test Coordinator

732-257-3300, ext. 1943 



Assessments

Thumbnail of district assessment plan

Middlesex County Magnet Schools utilize a variety of assessment techniques to measure student progress towards state standards throughout the school year. Classroom, district, and state assessments are all conducted in order to provide a process to verify student proficiency of the academic standards set forth by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). 

View the entire district assessment plan online. 




 

Annual Parent NotificatIon

New Jersey State Testing
Notification of Planned Statewide Assessment

Dear parents and guardians,

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:7C-6.6, school districts are required each year by October 1 to provide notification to parents and guardians regarding information on any state assessment or commercially developed standardized assessment that will be administered in the school district during the current school year. It is important to note that all students may not be administered all assessments.

Specifically, we are required to share the following:

  • The subject area of the assessment and grade levels covered by the assessment;
  • The date or range of potential dates for the administration of the assessment;
  • The time allotted for the student to take and complete the assessment;
  • Any accommodations or accessibility options available to students;
  • Information on how and when the student and his/her parent or guardian can access both sample questions and answers to the assessment and the student's results; and
  • Whether the assessment is required by the State or federal government, or both.

All of the above-listed information can be found within the District Assessment Plan online.


Daniel Gallant

Supervisor of Educational Technology

Important Updates

Historical Background

New Jersey has administered statewide assessments since the 1970s, and over the years, the testing program has evolved. It began as a measure of basic skills, and after 1996, it has assessed the state's academic standards. In 2001, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, every state was required to test students in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) in grades 3 to 8 and grade 11. That mandate is still in effect under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015.

In 2010, New Jersey adopted new, high-quality standards which changed the expectations in ELA and mathematics to emphasize higher-order thinking skills and not just memorizing information. In May 2016, the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted revisions to the mathematics and ELA standards and renamed all areas of the state's academic standards the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.

In the 2014-15 school year, New Jersey transitioned from its former assessments to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) in mathematics and English language arts. The PARCC assessments more accurately measure the higher-level skills developed under the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and provide parents and educators with meaningful information to improve teaching and learning.

Starting in 2015, districts began to distribute annual PARCC student score reports to parents. There are resources on this assessment site to assist with interpreting individual score reports that can give parents a common language to use in discussions with teachers about their child's progress.

The adoption of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science (NJSLS-S) in July 2014 initiated an overhaul of science education in New Jersey and the replacement of the former statewide science assessments – The New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Science (NJASK), the New Jersey Biology Competency Test (NJBCT), and the Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA) – with an assessment aligned to the state standards.

Starting in 2018, the New Jersey Department of Education requires that all science assessments be field tested in grades 5, 8, and 11.  The spring 2018 administration of high school science assessments, both the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment Science (NJSLA-S) and the Dynamic Learning Map (DLM) in science will be administered.  In the spring of 2019 these science assessments will again be administered and results of testing will begin the baseline year results.