The First of Seven Reports on our 7-District Dashboard
The 2024-2025 NJ School Performance reports are out and the formatting, display and data available are a huge improvement and allow us to focus on reporting the results this year without having to worry too much on showing the trends as those are available on the report itself. So let’s get to it.
This year we’re going to handle the performance reports a bit differently – we’re going to integrate the 7-District Comparisons into each District’s profile.
As a reminder the Districts on our Dashboard include Berkeley Heights, Chatham, Madison, Millburn, New Providence, Summit and Westfield.
It’s important to remember that NJ moved to adaptive testing this year for Math and ELA, and in a recent email to NJ21st, NJDOE said much of what NJ21st requested regarding technical reporting, validation, comparability, psychometric analysis, and TAC-related materials was still in development.
Our first report is going to be on Berkeley Heights.
ELA, Math and Science
ELA proficiency dropped from the 2023-2024 reporting period in all but one testing grade level.
| Grade / Level | 2023-24 ELA Proficiency | 2024-25 ELA Proficiency | Change | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall District | 77.3% | 73.3% | -4.0 points | Districtwide ELA proficiency declined from the prior year. |
| Grade 3 | 60.0% | 56.3% | -3.7 points | Declined from the prior year. |
| Grade 4 | 74.7% | 66.0% | -8.7 points | One of the largest ELA declines. |
| Grade 5 | 83.4% | 75.6% | -7.8 points | Down sharply. |
| Grade 6 | 70.1% | 86.7% | +16.6 points | The major exception; rose sharply. |
| Grade 7 | 81.0% | 75.2% | -5.8 points | Declined from the prior year. |
| Grade 8 | 78.2% | 77.6% | -0.6 points | Essentially flat. |
| Grade 9 | 81.1% | 75.1% | -6.0 points | Declined from the prior year. |
The District is still above its immediate post COVID proficiency rate of 68.5% in 2021-2022 but below its immediate pre-COVID proficiency rate of 79.5% in 2018-2019.
Math was more mixed.
| Grade / Level | 2023-24 Math Proficiency | 2024-25 Math Proficiency | Change | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall District | 70.1% | 69.4% | -0.7 points | Districtwide math proficiency was essentially flat, with a slight decline. |
| Grade 3 | 74.2% | 79.4% | +5.2 points | Improved from the prior year. |
| Grade 4 | 82.3% | 69.3% | -13.0 points | The sharpest grade-level math decline. |
| Grade 5 | 74.4% | 73.9% | -0.5 points | Essentially flat. |
| Grade 6 | 60.3% | 69.4% | +9.1 points | Improved significantly from the prior year. |
| Grade 7 | 69.5% | 61.7% | -7.8 points | Declined meaningfully from the prior year. |
| Grade 8 | * | * | Not reported | Data was suppressed or not reportable in the district chart. |
| Algebra I | 65.5% | 61.7% | -3.8 points | Declined from the prior year. |
| Geometry | 63.5% | 66.7% | +3.2 points | Improved from the prior year. |
| Algebra II | 81.8% | 95.5% | +13.7 points | Improved sharply, though this may involve a smaller test-taking group. |
The District was above both its 2018-19 pre-COVID rate of 68.8% and 2021-2022 post-COVID rate of 64.1%. In other words it’s holding steady but the numbers are still not fantastic.
In both subjects Student Growth was typical but heading in the wrong direction.
| Student Growth Measure | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Change From 2023-24 | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall ELA mSGP | 56 | 55 | 48 | -7 points | Still labeled typical, but down from the prior two years. |
| Overall Math mSGP | 63 | 52 | 46 | -6 points | Still labeled typical, but the three-year trend is sharply downward. |
| Grade 4 ELA mSGP | — | — | 42 | — | Lowest listed ELA grade-level growth score. |
| Grade 5 ELA mSGP | — | — | 44 | — | Typical growth, but below the districtwide ELA mSGP. |
| Grade 6 ELA mSGP | — | — | 45 | — | Typical growth, but below the districtwide ELA mSGP. |
| Grade 7 ELA mSGP | — | — | 51 | — | Second-highest listed ELA grade-level growth score. |
| Grade 8 ELA mSGP | — | — | 53 | — | Highest listed ELA grade-level growth score. |
| Grade 4 Math mSGP | — | — | 47 | — | Typical growth, slightly above the districtwide math mSGP. |
| Grade 5 Math mSGP | — | — | 47 | — | Typical growth, slightly above the districtwide math mSGP. |
| Grade 6 Math mSGP | — | — | 35 | — | Lowest listed math growth score. |
| Grade 7 Math mSGP | — | — | 55.5 | — | Highest listed math grade-level growth score. |
| Grade 8 Math mSGP | — | — | Not reported | — | Not reported because many Grade 8 students take Algebra I instead of the Grade 8 math assessment. |
Note: mSGP stands for median Student Growth Percentile. It measures student growth compared with academically similar students, not the percentage of students who met proficiency. Berkeley Heights’ 2024-25 ELA and math mSGPs were both labeled typical.
Moving to Science, NJDOE’s 2024-25 report now displays an overall science figure directly; earlier overall science figures in this comparison come from NJ21st’s prior tracking of students meeting or exceeding expectations.
| Grade / Level | 2023-24 Science Proficiency | 2024-25 Science Proficiency | Change | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall District | 50.0% | 51.1% | +1.1 points | Overall science proficiency improved slightly from the prior year. |
| Grade 5 | 54.2% | 62.2% | +8.0 points | Improved sharply from the prior year. |
| Grade 8 | 45.6% | 39.3% | -6.3 points | Declined from the prior year. |
| Grade 11 | 50.0% | 53.1% | +3.1 points | Improved modestly from the prior year. |
The District is still behind its 2018-19 pre-COVID rate of 54.3% but well above its 45% rate in 2021-2022.
Graduation
Three years ago the NJDOE lowered the cut score needed to pass the NJGPA and when that was implemented Berkeley Heights performance in this area increased. However this year showed improvement from last year under that lower-cut-score framework.
| NJGPA Measure | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Change | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11th Graders Graduation Ready: ELA | 88.9% | 93.8% | +4.9 points | ELA graduation-readiness improved from the prior year. |
| 11th Graders Graduation Ready: Math | 73.6% | 86.5% | +12.9 points | Math graduation-readiness improved sharply from the prior year. |
The NJGPA dashboard was one of the stronger Berkeley Heights reports. In 2024-25, 93.8% of 11th graders were graduation ready in ELA and 86.5% were graduation ready in math.
Environment
Chronic Absenteeism was an early point of controversy early on in connection to the proposed changes to the performance reports as the DOE significantly changed the inclusion rule by moving the minimum days present/absent from 45 to 90 – a change many education advocates felt was far too lenient. So the progress seen in this table should be taken with a rather large grain of salt.
| Measure | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Change / Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported K-12 Chronic Absenteeism Rate | 7.8% | 8.7% | 6.8% | 4.7% | Reported rate declined to the lowest level shown, but 2024-25 comparisons should be treated cautiously because NJDOE changed the inclusion rule. |
| Change from Prior Year | — | +0.9 points | -1.9 points | -2.1 points | The reported rate has declined for two straight years after peaking in 2022-23. |
| Schools Required to Develop Corrective Action Plan | — | — | — | 0 | No Berkeley Heights school was reported as requiring a chronic absenteeism corrective action plan. |
| Grade 1 Chronic Absenteeism | — | — | — | 9.8% | Highest listed grade-level rate and just below the 10% threshold. |
| Students with Disabilities | — | — | — | 19.7% | Highest listed student-group concern in the report. |
| Multilingual Learners | — | — | — | 9.0% | Also above the districtwide reported rate. |
Disciplinary Data
The largest category under incidents was HIB (40) followed by Violence (14), Vandalism (5), Substances (5) and Weapons (1). That increase comes during a period when school security and policing costs have also become a larger public budget issue.
| Year | Berkeley Heights Incidents Per 100 Students | Change From Prior Listed Year | Change From 2018-19 | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 2.02 | — | — | Pre-COVID comparison point from NJ21st tracking. |
| 2021-22 | 1.99 | -0.03 | -0.03 | Nearly unchanged from the pre-COVID level. |
| 2022-23 | 1.77 | -0.22 | -0.25 | Declined from the prior listed year. |
| 2023-24 | 1.64 | -0.13 | -0.38 | Lowest rate in the tracked period before the new report. |
| 2024-25 | 2.77 | +1.13 | +0.75 | Reported incidents rose sharply from last year and are now above the 2018-19 level. |
Note: Prior-year figures are from NJ21st’s tracker of Violence, Vandalism, HIB and Substance incidents per 100 students. The 2024-25 figure comes from the Berkeley Heights district discipline report, which lists 65 total unique incidents and 2.77 incidents per 100 students enrolled. The report cautions that incident categories should not be added together because a single incident may be counted under multiple types.
Police Notifications landed primarily in the middle grades.
| Grade | Students Involved in Police-Notified Incidents | Percent of Grade | Plain-English Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 | 10 students | 5.13% | Highest listed grade-level rate. |
| Grade 7 | 6 students | 3.77% | Second-highest listed rate. |
| Grade 6 | 6 students | 3.43% | Also concentrated in the middle grades. |
| Grade 5 | 5 students | 3.09% | Elevated compared with most other grades. |
| Grade 9 | 5 students | 2.40% | Lower than Grades 5-8, but still among the highest listed. |
Note: Police notification does not mean arrest. The same district discipline report shows 0 arrests for 2024-25.
7-District Comparison
In ELA, Berkeley ranked last out of the seven Districts and was below the 7-District Average.
ELA Proficiency, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 7th of 7.
In Math Berkeley Heights was 6th out of 7 and below the 7-District Average
Math Proficiency, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 6th of 7.
In Science, Berkeley Heights was 6th out of 7 and below the 7-District Average.
Science Proficiency, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 6th of 7.
In ELA Growth Berkeley Heights ranked 5th out of 7 and was below the 7-District Average
ELA Student Growth, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 5th of 7.
In Math Growth Berkeley Heights ranked 6th out of 7 and was below the 7-District Average.
Math Student Growth, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 6th of 7.
Lower is better with Chronic Absenteeism and Berkeley Heights ranked 3rd out of 7; better than the 7-District Average.
Chronic Absenteeism, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 3rd lowest of 7. Lower is better.
Bars scaled to 10% for readability.
Berkeley Heights had the highest figure in connection to Violence, Vandalism, HIB and Substance (2.77) out of the Seven Districts and was above the average for incidents per 100 students.
Discipline Incidents Per 100 Students, 2024-25
Berkeley Heights ranked 7th of 7. Lower is better.
Bars scaled to 3 incidents per 100 students for readability.
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Summit by the Numbers: Part 3 of Our 7-District Performance Comparison
New Providence by the Numbers: Part 2 of Our 7-District Comparison
