New Providence by the Numbers: Part 2 of Our 7-District Comparison

The Second of Seven Reports on our 7-District Dashboard

We’ll start with the housekeeping and go over the same spiel we covered in our first report in the series.

We’re going to handle the performance reports a bit differently this year and 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.

Another thing to keep in mind is that NJ moved to adaptive testing this year for Math and ELA, and in a recent email to NJ21st, NJDOE said much of what we requested regarding technical reporting, validation, comparability etc. was still in development.

This report focuses on New Providence.

ELA, Math and Science

ELA improved slightly overall with most grade levels either edging up or staying close to the prior year. The biggest drop occurred with Grade 9.

Grade / Level	2023-24 ELA Proficiency	2024-25 ELA Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	83.8%	84.7%	+0.9 points	Districtwide Improved slightly from the prior year.
Grade 3	75.1%	74.8%	-0.3 points	Essentially flat.
Grade 4	84.1%	85.1%	+1.0 point	Improved slightly from the prior year.
Grade 5	88.9%	91.2%	+2.3 points	Improved from prior year.
Grade 6	91.1%	92.1%	+1.0 point	Improved slightly from the prior year.
Grade 7	85.0%	88.1%	+3.1 points	Improved from the prior year.
Grade 8	81.0%	86.2%	+5.2 points	One of the stronger ELA improvements.
Grade 9	82.3%	75.3%	-7.0 points	Largest ELA decline in this table.

Math also improved overall but the inside results were a mix.

Grade / Level	2023-24 Math Proficiency	2024-25 Math Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	77.4%	79.4%	+2.0 points	Districtwide math proficiency improved from the prior year.
Grade 3	84.4%	86.9%	+2.5 points	Improved from the prior year.
Grade 4	84.0%	83.4%	-0.6 points	Essentially flat.
Grade 5	79.0%	79.8%	+0.8 points	Slight improvement.
Grade 6	84.0%	85.6%	+1.6 points	Improved from prior year.
Grade 7	71.3%	74.0%	+2.7 points	Improved from prior year.
Grade 8	34.4%	53.8%	+19.4 points	Large increase, though Grade 8 math can be affected by Algebra I participation.
Algebra I	81.9%	72.6%	-9.3 points	Declined from prior year.
Geometry	80.9%	91.7%	+10.8 points	Improved sharply from the prior year.
Algebra II	*	*	Not reported	Data was suppressed or not reportable in the district chart.

The district is above its 2018-19 pre-COVID math rate of 77.7% and its 2021-22 post-COVID rate of 72.7%.

Student growth in both ELA and Math were indicated as Typical with ELA showing up especially strong.

Student Growth Measure	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	Change From 2023-24	Takeaway
Overall ELA mSGP	56.5	58	63	+5 points	ELA growth improved and was labeled typical.
Overall Math mSGP	56	59	59	0 points	Math growth held steady and was labeled typical.
Grade 4 ELA mSGP	—	—	47.5	—	Typical growth.
Grade 5 ELA mSGP	—	—	70	—	High growth.
Grade 6 ELA mSGP	—	—	73	—	High growth.
Grade 7 ELA mSGP	—	—	80.5	—	Highest listed ELA grade-level growth score.
Grade 8 ELA mSGP	—	—	33	—	Lowest listed ELA grade-level growth score.
Grade 4 Math mSGP	—	—	49	—	Typical growth.
Grade 5 Math mSGP	—	—	52	—	Typical growth.
Grade 6 Math mSGP	—	—	63	—	Typical growth.
Grade 7 Math mSGP	—	—	68	—	High growth.
Grade 8 Math mSGP	—	—	Not reported	—	Not reported because many Grade 8 students take Algebra I instead of the Grade 8 math assessment.

In both subjects, NP’s student growth was at or above its pre-COVID number – ELA a57 to 63 and Math matching the 2018-19 level of 59 after dipping to 56 in 2022-23.

For Science, this year’s report shows the overall science figure directly, the earlier overall science figures in the table below comes from our prior tracking.

Grade / Level	2023-24 Science Proficiency	2024-25 Science Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	57.3%	60.8%	+3.5 points	Overall science proficiency improved from prior year.
Grade 5	68.0%	81.2%	+13.2 points	Improved sharply from the prior year.
Grade 8	54.1%	56.7%	+2.6 points	Improved from prior year.
Grade 11	60.7%	65.2%	+4.5 points	Improved from prior year.

The district is above its 2018-19 pre-COVID science rate of 54% and above its 2021-22 rate of 56%.

Graduation

The NJGPA also came up strong.

With that said, a note we’ll be making in every profile – three years ago the NJDOE lowered the cut score needed to pass the NJGPA.

NJGPA Measure	2023- 24	2024- 25	Change	Takeaway
11th Graders Graduation Ready: ELA	93.3%	95.9%	+2.6 points	ELA graduation-readiness improved from prior year.
11th Graders Graduation Ready: Math	87.3%	92.5%	+5.2 points	Math graduation-readiness improved sharply from prior year.

Environment

Another note we’re going to make with every District specific report on Chronic Absenteeism- the NJDOE changed the inclusion rule by moving the minimum days present or absent from 45 days to 90 days, so better numbers in this area should be read with that change in mind.

Chronic absenteeism improved in New Providence moving down from 4.9% in 2023-24 to 4% in 2024-25.

Measure	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	Change / Takeaway
Reported K-12 Chronic Absenteeism Rate	4.4%	4.7%	4.9%	4.0%	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	—	+0.3 points	+0.2 points	-0.9 points	The reported rate fell after rising for two straight years.
Schools Required to Develop Corrective Action Plan	—	—	—	0	No New Providence school was reported as requiring a chronic absenteeism corrective action plan.
Grade 1 Chronic Absenteeism	—	—	—	8.1%	One of the higher listed K-12 grade-level rates.
Multilingual Learners	—	—	—	6.7%	Above the districtwide reported rate.
Students with Disabilities	—	—	—	2.9%	Below the districtwide reported rate.

On the Disciplinary side, NP shows up with 13 total unique incidents in 2024-25, or 0.57 incidents per 100 students – dropping below its pre-Covid levels.

Year	New Providence Incidents Per 100 Students	Change From Prior Listed Year	Change From 2018-19	Plain-English Takeaway
2018- 19	0.67	—	—	Pre-COVID comparison point from NJ21st tracking.
2021- 22	1.45	+0.78	+0.78	Increased from the pre-COVID level.
2022- 23	1.33	-0.12	+0.66	Declined slightly from the prior listed year.
2023- 24	1.43	+0.10	+0.76	Rose slightly from the prior listed year.
2024- 25	0.57	-0.86	-0.10	Dropped below the 2018-19 level.

Vandalism made up the largest listed category, followed by HIB and Violence then Substances.

Incident Category	2024-25 Incidents	Plain-English Takeaway
Total Unique Incidents	13	Overall count reported in the discipline dashboard.
HIB	3	One of the reported incident categories.
Violence	3	Reported at the same count as HIB.
Vandalism	5	Largest listed category.
Substances	2	Lower than vandalism, violence and HIB.
Weapons	0	No weapons incidents were reported.
Arrests	0	The arrest table reports zero arrests.
Expulsions	0	No expulsions were reported.

7-District Comparison

In ELA, New Providence ranked near the top of the seven-district group and was above the 7-district average.

In Math, New Providence also ranked near the top of the group and was above the 7-district average.

In Science, New Providence ranked second out of seven districts and was above the 7-district average.

In ELA student growth, New Providence ranked first out of the seven districts.

In Math student growth, New Providence ranked third out of the seven and was above the 7-district average.

Lower is better with chronic absenteeism and New Providence ranked second-lowest out of our seven districts.

Lower is also better with discipline incidents, and New Providence ranked second-lowest out of the seven districts.

Source